Number Nine
by Midnight-Apple Blossom
Summary: When her boyfriend Link Finlay goes off to college, senior Zelda Royale is heartbroken. She quickly finds herself falling for her neighbor and childhood friend, Sheik Baldwin. Meanwhile, a serial killer wreaks havoc across Hyrule. Present AU.
1. Chapter 1: So Late So Soon

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: It is 12:36 AM Central Time here, so, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I was GONNA wait to post this until Sunday, but I couldn't resist. I've been working HARD on this story! My New Year's Resolution is I'm going to post regularly. So look for updates on Sundays at eight o'clock central time!! Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Enjoy :)

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NUMBER NINE

Chapter One: So Late So Soon

_How did it get so late so soon?  
It's night before it's afternoon.  
December is here before it's June.  
My goodness how the time has flewn.  
How did it get so late so soon?_

_~Dr. Suess_

It was the thirteenth of August. It was hot, sweaty, and Miss Zelda Royale was very upset.

She lived near Hyrule Castle Town. In the past, it had been small and homey, but with the recent advances in technology Hyrule as a whole had expanded. In Kakariko, houses were being constructed up the path to Goron City, although construction was very slow. The Gorons did not appreciate their land being advanced upon and had taken to rolling large boulders down the paths and destroying houses. After a man had been accidentally killed, a meeting had been called between the Head Goron, Link, and the mayor of Kakariko. Supposedly, a truce was going to be called, but everyone suspected the Gorons, with their inferior weapons, would be forced to sign a treaty giving away some of their land.

Zelda's neighborhood was pretty out in the open. It was near the river, and a string of houses lined it and were cutely packed together, with a wide wood behind them. It was not a rich neighborhood, nor a poor one, although it was leaning towards the latter. Zelda's house was painted white with a blue front door and a gray porch. There was a large oak tree near the street. Zelda was getting ready for some kind of surprise tonight.

She was sitting cross-legged on her bed. The room was rather small, but one of the largest in the house. It was messy, with clothing and various items strewn over the wood floor in an unorganized mess. The walls and ceiling were dark white, almost a cream color. There was one window. It was on the left side of her bed, and near the head of it. Zelda's bed was in the northeast corner. The bedding was fluffy and army green, picked because it was cheap. Money was very scarce in the Royale home, although conditions were improving. There was a small closet door, a mahogany dresser that was very old, and a door leading out to the living room.

She started to pull a light, pink sun dress from the closet, but then hesitated. Link wouldn't tell her what exactly they were doing. Which meant, with her luck, she'd put on that dress and they would be hiking. She put the dress back.

Twenty minutes later she was dressed in a white tank top, long-sleeved pink shirt, loose-fitting jeans, and a pair of tennis shoes. She would rather wear a pair of cute flip flops, but she had a mild case of plantar fasciitis in her left foot, and boy, did it hurt when she wore flip flops.

Her hair was straight with a flip at the end. She had long, light blonde hair that was naturally curly. She typically straightened it, but with humidity it would curl back. Zelda searched around her room for her purse. It was striped red, pink, orange, and white, with brown leather handles. She had got it on clearance for fifteen dollars. But where was it? She hoped he would be just a few more minutes...

As if on cue, there was a knock on the front door. Zelda looked around for her purse- and couldn't find it.

"Hello?" her brother, Liam (or Doomie, as all of his childhood friends and Zelda's friends called him), said after opening the door. Zelda ran around the room, and then found her purse lying by her bed. She picked it up, flew to the door and opened it. She screamed.

"Doomie!" she said, staring her brother. Liam was about to knock on her door to tell her Link was there. Liam was about five feet and eight inches tall, with black hair cropped short and blue eyes. He was twenty-two, and served the dual role of parent and brother to Zelda.

"Link's here," he said. "Have fun."

One of the great things about Liam was that he never asked many questions, and never set very many rules for Zelda. At first, she had taken advantage of this- staying out late at parties, coming home drunk, sometimes not even coming home and then waking up very confused in someone else's bed the next day- but then the lady who checked in on them once a month noticed Zelda's deteriorating grades and both of the siblings' appearances. She had threatened Liam would lose custody of Zelda if he didn't start behaving more as a parent, and get a job. The two were terrified of being separated, so at first Liam behaved like, as Zelda put it, a Nazi. Zelda had put her foot down. She had a curfew of eleven (she didn't agree, but it was better than a curfew of when the sun set, and Liam wasn't budging) that the two had grown used to. Zelda had never once broken it, and so Liam rarely brought it back up. But it was still there.

Zelda came around the corner, where Link Finlay stood at the door. Zelda felt the corners of her eyes prick, but she blinked it away.

He was wearing plaid shorts and a long-sleeved, gray shirt that stated "CTU" (Clock Town University) across the chest. His golden hair was shaggy and messed. He had deep blue eyes, an angular nose, and a strong jaw. His skin was slightly tanned. He took his sunglasses off as Zelda came to the door. The two stared at each other for a minute. And then:

"When was the last time you brushed your hair?" Zelda nagged, smiling. Link smiled back at her before making a face in disgust.

"When was the last time you showered?" he asked her. The two giggled and then hugged. In some ways, their relationship was very immature. It was customary for them to fight with each other constantly, but rarely did they actually fight. "See ya, Doomie," Link said over Zelda's shoulder before pulling away.

"Ah, get your PDA out of my house," Liam joked back. Zelda stuck her tongue out at her brother, and then Liam waved at them. He turned the TV on.

"Hey, Zel, go to the truck, okay? I need to ask Doomie something," Link said.

"Mmkay," Zelda said, and then she left for the truck.

Link drove a black 2009 Sierra Denali. It was very shiny and he took good care of it. She went around and opened the passenger door, but then stopped. _Link would _freak _if he thought I was gonna try to drive it... _She scampered around and climbed in the driver's seat.

The truck was pretty high off the ground. The seats were black leather and very comfortable. She waited for him to come out, but he didn't. She pouted. Now she was bored. She looked around for some kind of entertainment- and found the radio. She laughed internally, and then browsed for a country station.

_"And I try to drink,_

_Drink my pain,_

_Drink my pain down this drain_

_I try to drink_

_It all away_

_To keep it at bay!"_

_Promising, _she thought, listening to some guy croon about an ex-girlfriend. Zelda snickered and turned the radio all the way down, so when Link turned it on he'd have some delightful tunes to listen to. She got out and ran to the passenger door so he wouldn't suspect anything.

Link came out of the house as soon as she was seated. She suppressed a grin.

"So, where are we headed?" she asked as he got in, putting her seat belt on.

"Can't tell you," Link said, pressing his lips in a firm line. The corners of his mouth were turned up.

"Why not?" Zelda whined.

"Because," he said, "it's a secret." He reached for the dial on the radio, and turned it up. The man was still whining about drinking his pain away. He had a very deep, twangy voice. And the lyrics didn't help at all. Link turned and looked at a giggling Zelda before rolling his eyes and turning the radio back off. He backed out of the driveway.

"Why does it have to be a secret?" Zelda asked, bringing the conversation back.

"Because. I want to leave with..."

"With what?"

"Well, I don't know."

"You don't know?" she said. "What do you want to leave with?"

"I don't know, a bang?"

"A bang? How lame!"

"Tsch. Such a child," Link teased Zelda.

"Old man," she teased back. They teased each other about their age frequently. Zelda was eighteen, getting ready for her senior year of high school. Link had just turned nineteen, getting ready for his freshmen year of college. He was leaving early tomorrow morning to catch his flight. He was going to Clock Town University, so far away Zelda would never be able to go visit _him. _He said he would try to visit her, and she believed him. But the key word was "try". She sighed.

And then for the first time all night she began to lose herself. _Oh no, oh no, oh no... _she thought. She felt her throat swell up and the back of her eyes begin to ache.

With perfect timing, they pulled into the forest. Zelda tried to control herself, but one tear slid down her face. Damn. She sniffled.

"Zelda?" Link said. She did not reply. When she tried to speak when she was about to cry, she usually started crying harder. "Z?" Link asked again. When she didn't look at him, he touched her cheek. "Hey," he said, his voice soft and caring. "What's a matter?"

"Nothing," Zelda said, her voice cracking.

And then she started bawling. Link pulled over.

"Hey," he said softly, awkwardly pulling her into the middle seat, next to him. He held her against his chest, and she cried freely. He even pretended not to care when she got snot all over his shirt. His new shirt. But whatever- she needed him. And it hurt him to know that what she _really _needed was some more time with him, and he couldn't give it to her. Their time was up. _How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?_ Link didn't spend time sitting around reading poetry. More like, he sat around playing video games or football with his cousins. But Link had a pretty good memory, and towards the end of the year they had done a poetry unit in English, and that very appropriate poem had been in it.

"Z?" he asked softly.

"Just drive," Zelda said, suppressing tears. They now felt hot, and she had a major headache. She felt incredibly embarrassed. She didn't cry very often, especially not in the company of boys. And _especially _not in the company of a very cute, very smart boy. Who happened to be her boyfriend. Who was leaving for college the very next day. Link hesitated, and then put the truck into gear and continued to drive, with one arm around her.

Oh, how in the _hell _was she gonna manage? Link was her solace, her place of comfort... When school stressed her out, or cross country made her feet hurt worse than usual, or when money was tight, who was gonna comfort her now? Sure, she could call him, but it just wasn't the same. She _did_ have a laptop (a present from Link on her sweet sixteen (Could this guy get any better?) so they could video chat (he'd bought her a setup thing)... But it would be a long time before they could see each other in person...

She started crying again, but it was a quiet kind of cry now. Link pretended like he didn't notice. A few minutes later, he spoke:

"Shut your eyes."

"What?"

"Shut your eyes."

"Why?"

"Shut your eyes."

"But-"

"Please?"

Zelda closed her eyes.

"You're not gonna leave me, right?" she asked him, knowing the answer.

"Of course not," Link said warmly, kissing her forehead. Zelda felt warm fuzzies spread through her stomach. Link disentangled himself from her and exited the car. He came around to her side and opened the door.

"How am I gonna-"

"Walk?" Link finished, picking her up. "Problem solved."

"You're amazing," Zelda said, smiling like an idiot.

"I know," Link said with much gusto. "I try not to let it get to myself."

"Right. You seem to be doing such a great job."

"I'm working on it. Just keep your eyes closed."

"Okay."

To Zelda, it seemed like they were going a long ways, but it was actually just a short walk.

"I'm gonna set you down, now," Link said.

"Too much of a pansy to keep holding me up?" Zelda laughed.

"Nope. We're here. But keep your eyes shut!" Link said. Zelda smiled. He lowered her and placed her on some kind of strange surface. It was very holey, and as soon as he let go, she began to sway.

"Link-?!"

"You're fine," he told her. "I'll be right back."

She sniffed as she could hear his retreating footsteps. If his footsteps were any kind of indication, it seemed like he was going back to the truck. She knew he wouldn't leave her, and he wanted it to be a surprise, so she decided to ignore him and focus on her surroundings. She could smell water. And dirt. And the air felt muggy and cool against her face... Were they near water? She could hear the birds chirping and other wildlife going on around them.

And then, yes, some splashing. But no people.

Huh. She thought about everything going on with her lately, and swung back and forth in her... chair? The wind caressed her face, and the splashing seemed peaceful.

"Back!" said Link. He dropped something heavy on the ground, and Zelda heard something slushing around. She raised an eyebrow.

"May I open my eyes now?" she asked.

"Mmhmm," Link told her. She opened her sapphire eyes.

She was in a hammock. _Oh!_ she thought. _How obvious! Holey, breezy... Ah._

They were by the river. The river was kind of muddy, but very clean. People swam in this river all the time. And it was early August, and still swelteringly hot. Why wasn't anyone-?

There were trees all around them, which explained the wildlife sounds. She turned around. Behind them was a wide clearing. There was a small trailer, a grill, and Link's truck. Besides the clearing, all she could see were trees. It was...

"Link, it's beautiful," she said softly.

"I thought you'd like it," Link said, directing her attention back to him. He was standing between her and the river. He had lugged an ice chest over, and had pulled two sodas out of it. A brown pop for him, and a Hilly Mist for her. He handed it to her, and sat down beside her. They opened their sodas in silence. Just as she was taking a drink, Link spoke. "I love you Zelda Royale. I plan to marry you some day, but I'm pretty broke right now and we're too young for engagements."

Zelda's mouth dropped.

"So here's to you. And me. And how much I, at least, love you." Link raised his can. Zelda was flabbergasted.

"I- I l-love you too," she stuttered lamely. Link smiled.

"It's okay if you're not ready to commit," he told her.

"No, it's not that," Zelda said. "We've been dating since my freshmen year. We've been telling each other that we love each other since my sophomore year. It's not that..."

"What is it, then?"

"Well, you just told me you plan to marry me."

"Yeah. So?"

"Oh, Link," she said, feeling another traitorous tear creep out. But this one was different. This was... A happy tear.

"What?" Link said.

"I'll wait for you," she said slowly and clearly. "No matter how long it takes... I'm not as smart as you, so I won't be able to get into Clock Town University like you... And it'll take you a few years to get back... We won't see each other a lot..."

"Z, don't say that-"

"It's true," she interrupted. "But I'll wait for you. Forever. I promise." They clanked their drinks together and drank in silence. "What time is it?" she asked.

"Six forty-five," he said. "You must be hungry."

"I'm fine," she said.

"No, really," Link said. "I brought food, see!" he set his pop on the ground and went back to the ice chest. There were hamburger patties, buns, and hot dogs. "The grill was already here... I figured, before I leave, I may as well act like a good boyfriend."

"Hmph," Zelda said.

"Also, I talked to Doomie," Link said.

"What about?" Zelda said. Link hesitated and Zelda's stomach drop. "_Link Finlay, I swear to _Din _if you said anything to him about what we just talked about-!_"

"No, no!" Link said. "I told him we were going to some private property my parents own out by the river, and asked if I could go get one of your swim suits!"

Zelda paused.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So. You saw what a mess my room was?"

"Pretty awful. I cleaned up a bit."

"Is _that_ why you took so long?"

"Yup."

She should have known clean-freak Link wouldn't have been able to tolerate her tornado-stricken room. And "cleaned up a bit" probably meant he vacuumed, dusted... The whole shebang. He was a force to be reckoned with, but with cleanliness instead of a threat. And then another thought touched her. She blushed.

"Did you find it?"

"Yup."

Oh, Goddesses. That meant he had to have gone through her underwear drawer. If he'd seen the ones with Kermit the Frog, she might just have to shoot herself. An awkward silence settled, which probably meant they were thinking about the same thing. Her Kermit panties.

"What do you say we get some food?" Link asked her.

"Okay," Zelda said, mortified.

Link went into his truck and turned the radio on. He rolled the windows down and turned the impressive stereo up. They were listening to an old rock station, now. They listened to the music and talked to each other while Link cooked. They laughed a lot, and neither thought of the bad stuff that tomorrow would bring. Then they ate.

"You're a good cook," Zelda complimented, finishing her cheeseburger. Link laughed. "You're a keeper."

"I'm all yours," he said, kissing her lightly. She smiled. He sighed, and then checked his watch. "I was hoping we could go for a swim, but it's a long drive, and I have to be home with enough time to finish packing and stuff."

Zelda felt a pang of longing.

"Okay," she said, surprised at how cool her voice sounded.

"You're okay with that?" Link said cautiously.

"Of course," she told him. "You gotta do what you gotta do."

He smiled at her, and they started packing up.

* * *

"Thanks, Link," Zelda was telling him. It was dark, and they were standing on her porch. As predicted, the humidity had curled her hair into a frizzy mess. "Even if we didn't get to swim." It was okay. She was wearing mascara, anyway.

"I really am sorry," he told her sincerely.

"I know," Zelda said. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him one last time. He kissed her back. She pulled back, but he didn't let her go. Zelda allowed herself to melt into his kiss. Her body felt like it was melting, and her heart felt fuzzy and like it could fly right out of her chest. Her feet wanted to do a dance, but her mind didn't want to. He was so perfect, so amazing... Typically, she wouldn't make out on her porch, but this was the last time she'd see him for awhile...

And with that thought her mood died. She pulled away, and this time Link allowed her. She smiled weakly at him.

"Bye, Link."

"Bye, Zel. I love you."

"I love you too," Zelda said. She thought about kissing him again, but then she heard footsteps. "Doomie's coming." Link smiled crookedly.

"I'll miss you. I'll call every night," Link told her.

"I already miss you," Zelda said. With one last wave, Link turned and walked back to his car. Zelda stood on the porch and felt her heart breaking in her chest. He waved and pulled out, and Zelda waved back and watched him go. And then she started crying again.

She didn't feel like going inside, so she sat on the porch swing. She tried to quiet her sobs. No one would bother her out here... It was dark, no one would be able to see her, anyway. The only issue was sound... And she was doing a pretty good job of covering up the tears that threatened to overtake her.

"Zelda?"

"Aah!" she yelled, jumping. She scanned for her attacker, but only saw her neighbor, Sheik. "Oh. Hey."

"What are you doing out here?" he demanded, sitting next to her.

"Excuse me, it's my yard," Zelda replied snottily. She wouldn't usually answer back with so much attitude, but she was very upset and he'd just intruded. "The better question is why are _you _here?"

"Hey, when I see my neighbor making out with a prick and then hear her crying on our porch, it's only the humane thing to investigate," Sheik answered back. Zelda wouldn't look at him.

"How the hell did you hear me? And why were you watching me? Are you stalking me?"

"In case you forgot, neither of us can afford a very big yard. Our houses are about this far apart." Sheik extended his hands, making a yard.

"That's an exaggeration."

"Tsch!" he snorted.

"And besides, that doesn't give you much of an excuse for stalking me," she replied. "And he is not a prick!"

"Oh, on the contrary," Sheik responded dryly. "He is very prick-like. You should see him at football practice. Always flaunting his 'abilities'..."

"Sheik, you don't play football. You run cross country. With me."

"So you see him too!" he said with enthusiasm. Zelda laughed.

"Go home, Sheik," she told him.

"Okay," he said. "You're okay?"

"Yeah," she lied. "I'm fine."

Sheik stared at her for a moment, and then he put his arm around her shoulders. With other guys, Zelda would have said something, but this was Sheik. Their relationship had always been this way. And so she said nothing.

"It'll be fine," he said soothingly. "I have a feeling this year is gonna be really... big."

"You're only saying that because your main competition is gone."

"Well, that," Sheik said, "and I really do have a feeling."

"Yeah. Uh huh."

"Night, Zelda."

"Night, Sheik."

And then Sheik went back home. Zelda followed his lead, and went in her own house. She retreated to her room, where she could cry and feel sorry for herself in peace.

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A/N: Haha, did anyone catch the reference to Mountain Dew? Hilly Mist? _Crickets chirp. _Ahem. Ahh... And I also realize a lot of the lines were pretty crappy and cheesy. But, whatever. Yay cheese! The chapters after this will get better, I promise.

I have an announcement. Dum da da duuum!

I found a website, **www (dot) floorplanner (dot) com**, that you can design houses on for free! Yaaaay free-ness!! So I designed a replica of the Royale house and took screen shots that I'll post on my blog. I was really getting into it, so I can see myself doing this with every house we come in contact with in this story. I think this is really good because I still get to explain how the house looks, but you also get to know how _I _see it, and that way I won't forget to explain something and I'll be talking about it later and the reader won't be going, "Wait, what? I didn't know there was a large rug there!" Aha!

So, here's the link to my blog: **www (dot) midnight-apple-blossom (dot) blogspot (dot) com**

So, take a visit on over and check out my blog! It's mainly based for my fan fiction. Look in the blog archive for "Royale House Pictures" or "RH Pictures". You can feed my fishies while you are over! They do enjoy food.

See ya :)


	2. Chapter 2: What We Have

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: Why hello :D Welcome back! And by the way I have no idea how to pronounce the last name of the quoter of the quote in the beginning. At all. Thank goodness for copy and paste!! And thank you for those who reviewed! Reviewers are nice people. They will get pie.

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NUMBER NINE

Chapter Two: What We Have

_Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for,_

_great enough to die for._

_~ Dag Hammarskjold_

"No, no, _please, _for the love of _Din, _no!" screamed a woman. She was met by a chuckle. Tears poured down her face, and sobs wracked her body. She was in the woods. She had been lured out, all alone, by _his _face, by _his _eyes... And she had to get out.

Trees. Trees, as far as she could see. What was once her favorite place to be was now her personal hell. She tripped and heard laughter. She shrieked, leapt up, and ran the opposite way of the sound.

"SOMEBODY! IS THERE ANYBODY OUT HERE?" she screamed as loudly as she possibly could. Then, a pair of arms much stronger than her own, gripped her from behind and tackled her.

"Only me," whispered that deep, horrible voice in her ear.

"AAAAAH!"

He began to laugh.

* * *

It was Friday, August fourteenth. A warm, pink light washed over the unusually clean bedroom of Zelda Royale. Her laptop was under her bed, where she wouldn't accidentally step on it and it wouldn't be squished by anything. The one who had cleaned the room had left it in its resting place.

Zelda was lying in her bed, her covers a mess around her. She was lying on her stomach, wearing a baby blue tank top and a pair of navy Soffe shorts. Drool was seeping out of the corner of her mouth. A black hair tie adorned her wrist, and her hair was a tangled mess, wild and thick around her face. She was snoring lightly.

_BANG!_

The eyes opened in surprise. She lay there for a moment more, and then she closed her mouth and wiped at it in disgust. She sat up, and her hair spilled around her in golden waves. She rubbed the sides of her head, and then got up.

_What was that? _she thought. _Probably Doomie being an idiot..._ She tiptoed over to the door. As she touched the doorknob, a shock wave passed through her.

_Murder! Murder! Murder! _her thoughts roared, jumping back to the dream she had had last night. _What? ...Oh..._ Zelda remembered hearing something about a third murder on the news a few weeks ago. But that was no biggie, there were deaths all the time in Hyrule... People jumping into the paths of moving trains... Car accidents...

_Those are deaths, not murders! _her thoughts screamed back.

_Why am I even thinking about this? This doesn't concern me!_ Zelda thought to herself, her hand still on the doorknob. Her thoughts didn't answer, but she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling her dream had given her. Physically shaking her head, she opened the door.

Light spilled across the thin, brown carpet from the back doors. Zelda stepped out in clear view.

"Doomie?" she asked softly, not quite awake yet.

There was a moment of hesitation, and then Liam's head popped out of his room.

"Sorry," he said softly. "I was trying to be quiet and dropped my guitar."

"Din, Doomie, is the guitar okay?" Zelda asked, rubbing her eyes and stepping towards her dark-haired brother.

"Yeah. I think so," he said.

"That was a really loud bang," the blonde commented.

"Well, actually, I dropped my guitar on my bed. I fell on the floor."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

Brother and sister stared at each other awkwardly, before Zelda yawned and headed back to her room. Liam waited to make sure her door was closed, before turning back around and speaking softly to someone.

Zelda was on her computer and didn't hear the back door close softly.

She had already checked her cell phone, and nothing was there from Link. Nothing was there from anybody, which wasn't unusual at seven twenty seven in the morning on a day where there wasn't school or anything. Well, it was unusual for anyone not involved in athletics. Zelda's alarm was due to go off in three minutes. She had cross country practice this morning, and she had to get ready.

Zelda stared at Link's MyFace profile for a minute, before sighing and closing her laptop. It was an Apple, with a pink plastic cover that clicked on over it. She slid it back under her bed and plugged the charger back in. She walked to the bathroom and took a quick shower.

As she exited the bathroom, a cloud of steam blew out.

"Din, Zelda, how hot was that shower?" Liam asked. Zelda ignored him. "Breakfast is ready, if want some!" he yelled at her as she shut the door to her room.

It was eight o'clock when she came out of her bedroom, wearing tennis shoes, athletic shorts, and a loose-fitting tee shirt. The hair tie around her wrist was now securing her hair back in a cute ponytail, and her makeup was very light.

"Thanks, Doomie," she yawned, exiting the kitchen with a plate of bacon and eggs, a couple pieces of toast, and a glass of Hilly Mist. She, and everyone else, called her brother Doomie because it had always been his life's ambition to become a famous guitar player. He had picked up the instrument when he was six, and his parents had paid for lessons. When he was ten he had formed a band called "Doom's Minions" and had thought it was incredibly cool. He strutted around constantly bragging that he was the leader of Doom's Minions, like it was something amazing. A few months later the band broke up. His parents had called him Doomie, and Zelda had picked up on it, and Zelda's friends had picked up on it, and now everyone but Liam's friends called him Doomie. The name "Doomie" was so often used for Liam, some of Zelda's friends didn't even know his name was actually Liam.

"You know, the soda completely detracts from the healthy-ness of this breakfast," Liam was saying as Zelda sat next to him on the couch. The TV was tuned in to some crappy sitcom.

"Hah!" Zelda said. "I'm sure greasy bacon and buttery eggs are very healthy for you."

"Yeah, yeah," Liam told her. "You'd better hurry, kid."

Brother and sister watched TV as Zelda scarfed down her breakfast. Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in, Sheik," Zelda and Liam loudly said in unison. They looked at each other, and Zelda laughed. Sheik walked in.

"Am I missing something funny?" he asked, sitting next to Zelda. "And you'd better hurry, we're gonna be late!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Zelda told him. She finished her piece of toast.

"I don't think I have ever seen a girl who eats like a man as much as you do," Sheik commented. Zelda stuck her tongue out, which had uneaten food on it, and Liam and Sheik high-fived each other.

"You're such a jerk," Zelda told him. Sheik snickered, and the three watched the sitcom together.

Sheik came every morning. It was routine for the two to ride to school and practice together. They had since they were little. Their grandparents had been friends, and their parents had been friends, so Sheik and Zelda were always forced to play with each other since they were little, and an actual friendship had come from that. Their parents and grandparents had teased them about falling in love with each other, and in middle school they had dated off and on. In high school, Zelda had found Link, but Sheik remained one of her best friends.

Zelda finished her breakfast and went to the kitchen. She dumped her plate, and then went and brushed her teeth. She grabbed her purse out of her unusually clean room and spritzed some perfume on.

"Ready," she said, coming from her room.

"See ya, Doomie," said Sheik.

"See ya, guys," Liam said, turning the TV of and going to the shower. Liam had to work today, which was another reason Zelda had to ride with Sheik. Liam and Zelda shared a car; they couldn't afford one for each of them.

Sheik and Zelda left the house and walked to Sheik's.

"You know, we could run to school," Sheik suggested.

"I just ate!" Zelda told him.

"Hah!" he said. "_I_ didn't eat breakfast at all."

"You know, you tease me about eating like a man, but you act awful like a girl sometimes," Zelda told him.

"You seem in a better mood right now than you were last night," Sheik told her.

"Don't go there," Zelda said. She felt a hole start to form in her throat, making her stomach feel as if she had swallowed a cold rock and it was now dropping. Her throat swelled up.

"Sorry," Sheik said.

The two walked to his red 1997 Jeep Wrangler. Despite being old, it ran great. Sheik's dad happened to be a mechanic. His mom was a music teacher. She gave lessons to those around the area and played in local bands. Despite neither of his parents having high-paying jobs, they could afford three cars: Sheik's jeep, his dad's truck, and the van his mom drove. They climbed in his car, and Sheik turned the radio on to a rock station.

"So," he said. "You sleep well?"

"Sh-"

"Crap, sorry! Uhm... Did you get better after last- damn!"

"No, it's o-"

"Ah... Did you get on MyFace?"

Zelda sighed.

"It's okay, Sheik," she told him as they drove to their school.

"Is it?" he asked quizzically.

"Kind of," Zelda said. "Well, it's not gonna get any better."

"I really don't get what you see in him."

"Of course you wouldn't."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" Sheik demanded. Zelda sighed. "Are you implying that because I am male, I don't realize that females see him as a drop-dead, gorgeous, son of a-"

"Stop," Zelda said sharply. "There's more than that, and you know it."

"Uh, I don't," Sheik said. "Seriously. You should see how he acts when you're not around."

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked cautiously. This was different. Usually, when Sheik talked about Link, it was the same- pretty-boy, arrogant, ladies' man...

"He just... I don't know."

"If you're about to go on a ladies' man tangent, I'm gonna reach over and hit you."

"You wouldn't. I know you."

Zelda unbuckled her seat belt and sprawled over the seat. She smacked him beside the head and readjusted herself in her seat.

"Ow!" Sheik said, rubbing the back of his head. They came to a stop light. "Okay, maybe I was wrong on that."

"Hah!" Zelda snorted. The two became quiet.

"But in all honesty..."

"Oh, will you quit?"

"Fine," Sheik said. Zelda could see she had won... For today.

Sheik made no secret of his distaste for Link. Zelda secretly knew it was because Sheik liked her- more than everyone else. He hadn't gotten over his junior high crush on her, while Zelda had. Zelda knew that was partially because she had found Link. But Sheik hadn't found anyone. He had remained single since the summer before freshman year. Now, they were both getting ready to be seniors.

"Woo, seniors!" Zelda yelled. Sheik raised an eyebrow.

"That was random," he commented. "It has been a good run though, hasn't it?"

"Heck yes!" Zelda said, a mood of hyperactivity setting in. Her soda was starting to kick in.

"You know you're gonna be feeling that pop when we're running, right?" he said. "Today's Coach's Kill-The-Kids Day, remember?"

"No," Zelda said, tilting her head.

"Heavy workout. Very heavy," Sheik said. Zelda waited another moment, and then Coach Darunia's speech came back to her. She groaned and laid back in her seat.

"But as long as you're suffering, I should get my sugar fix for today as well," Sheik said, eyeing the glove compartment.

"Can I have some?" Zelda asked.

"Absolutely not!" Sheik told her.

"Pleeeease?"

"I bought those with my own money!"

"Fine," Zelda said, getting into the glove department. It had the usual stuff that glove compartments usually had, but Sheik's was also stuffed with Skittles. He was obsessed. Zelda fished a package out and tossed them to him. She shut it.

"Hey," Sheik said.

"What?" she said sulkily. He grabbed her hand and dumped over half the package out. "Thanks!" she said, considerably brighter.

"Yup," he told her as they pulled into the parking lot. They walked together.

* * *

"Now," Coach Darunia was telling them, "you all know about the murders that have been happening lately?"

The gathering of high schoolers nodded solemnly. The freshmen looked nervous, and the seniors bored.

"I saw on the news this morning that the fourth body turned up," the coach said solemnly. Zelda's mouth dropped. That made four... "So, unfortunately, we aren't going to go run in the wildlife park today."

A cheer rose amongst the kids. Darunia glared at them and they quieted. Zelda snickered. Darunia set his heavy glare on her, and she faked absolute graveness.

"Anything from you, Miss Royale, and you'll be in detention!"

"Sorry, sir," Zelda said. Sheik rolled his eyes. It was common knowledge that Coach Darunia favored Zelda over the others. He threatened her with detention almost every day. Occasionally, someone would wonder if the coach saw more than was appropriate in Zelda. Somebody had said something to Zelda about it, and she had thrown a huge fit, but she had begun wearing looser shirts and boy shorts when she was around the coach, though she vehemently denied it when anyone said anything to her.

"... so, today's practice will be relatively short," Darunia told them. He listed off a number of laps for them to do. Everyone groaned. "I don't want to hear it, get to running!" Darunia roared. Everyone sprinted to the track.

* * *

Zelda was sweating like crazy and running with her best friends who ran cross country, Sheik, Ruto Eaton, Saria Weld, Mikau Merobb, and Fox McCloud. They were all seniors and had begun talking and laughing, but now they were all in deep concentration. They all had the same destination and usually reached it in the same time, but now they all were struggling to keep on their feet. Saria especially was taking it hard. Her little chest was heaving, and her feet were going twice as fast and hard in order to keep up with the others. Saria was unusually small for her age, standing at four foot eight inches. Her short, mousy hair was tipped green, and her eyes were an emerald color.

Ruto Eaton was a senior. She liked to gossip and talk. She was extremely tall, and for some reason was obsessed with Link. Link, joking with Zelda, had once said it would serve everyone better if Sheik and Ruto would hurry up and get together so they would leave him and Zelda alone. Sheik couldn't stand Ruto. Neither could Fox. Ruto was a willowy beauty. She made up for Saria's shortness, all six foot two inches of her. She was skinny, with blondish brown hair tipped with blue. Saria and Ruto had gone in to get their hair tipped at the same time. Ruto had blue eyes.

Mikau liked Ruto. He had pale skin, pale hair, and pale gray eyes. His light hair was short, and he was rather tall. He had kind of a big nose. He was smart, but not overly smart. Saria was the brainy one.

Fox had brown hair and eyes, and was about average height. He liked video games. A lot. Aside from cross country and occasionally hanging out with his friends, video games were pretty much all he did.

This was Zelda's main group of friends, except for Malon Ackerman (who didn't do sports) and Link (who was at college). Zelda, Ruto, and Saria ran together in a line, and Mikau, Fox, and Sheik ran in a line in front of them.

And then, Zelda's phone went off.

_Oh, Goddesses, _she thought. _Of all times! _

She planned on ignoring it, but a sad country song began playing.

_I'll leave my window open,_

_'Cause I'm too tired of calling your name_

_Just know I'm right here hopin'_

_That you'll come in with the rain_

"While- we're- running?" Ruto asked. She didn't need to finish her sentence. Zelda knew Ruto well enough. _You keep your phone on you while we're running? Are you obsessed? _Ruto's voice said in Zelda's mind. Zelda fumbled in her pocket for her phone and answered.

"Hell-o?" she said.

"Zelda?" Link's rich voice said.

"Hi!" Zelda said with much exuberance.

"What are you doing?" he asked. He sounded happy. There were voices in the background.

"Cross- country," Zelda said.

"Hi," Ruto and Fox said breathlessly.

"Ruto- and- Fox- say- hi," Zelda panted.

"Put the damn phone away," Mikau said. He seemed to be the only one who wasn't dying.

"Ah," Link said. "I'll call you later."

"No! Don't go!" Zelda said, her phone bouncing against her ear.

"Coach sees you," Mikau said. Zelda looked over at Coach Darunia, who was glaring heavily.

"Won't- touch- me," Zelda said confidently.

"Well, I don't want you getting in trouble," Link said. "I just called to let you know I'm here, I made it safely. I'm with my roommates right now. I'm in a nice suite- there's three bedrooms, and six of us. There's me, Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and Falco Lombardi. I don't know who was in charge of rooming, but whoever put the ones from the Mushroom Kingdom are idiots. They won't shut up! They keep talking about racing and golfing and they keep hitting each other! Half the time I can't even understand them because of their accents!"

"Really," Zelda said, glancing at the coach. He was jogging towards the track. Crap.

"Falco's pretty cool though. He reminds me of Fox, kinda," Link said. "Anyways, call me back when you can. Love you."

"You too," Zelda said, hanging up and stuffing her phone back in her pocket.

"You're in for it now," Fox told her. Saria grunted. Zelda felt the sensation that she was about to be murdered as the Coach caught up to the group of runners.

"Royale!" he barked. "Get over here!"

"See ya later," Zelda panted to her friends before turning. Traffic continued moving the other way. Zelda panted and began walking. Well, seeing as she was in for the scolding of a lifetime anyway, she began walking. She met with Coach, and he stormed angrily off the track. Zelda followed, her shoulders stooped forward in embarrassment. They walked to the bleachers.

"What in the _hell _were you doing?" he asked.

"I don't know," Zelda said.

"You don't know?!"

"That's right," Zelda said, giving a winning smile.

"Don't give me a cute little smile and think you've got me under your 'spell'," Darunia growled.

"Whatever do you mean?" Zelda asked innocently.

"Give me your phone."

"What?!"

"Give it to me."

"But-"

"Detention for a week."

"What?!? Oh fine..." Zelda fished her phone back out of her pocket and gave it to her victorious coach. He put it in his pocket.

"Get back out there. Two extra laps."

"_What?!_"

"You say 'what' one more time, and I'll make it ten."

"Fine," Zelda said, mad. Two extra laps was an extra half-mile. Oh well, she was almost done anyway...

* * *

She finished her extra half a mile by herself, and behind everyone else. Sheik was in his car, probably listening to the radio and eating Skittles, and everyone else had left. Zelda had heard some of the other girls saying things like, "Who's the favorite NOW?" and laughing amongst themselves as Zelda ran the extra half-mile.

Once she finished, she collapsed by the track. She put her head between her knees and tried to breathe evenly. And she felt... Oh, Din... She crawled over to the trash can and vomited.

_Sheik was right, _she thought. She could see the multicolored Skittles, and she could feel the Hilly Mist now. Gross...

She wiped her mouth and turned around.

"I'm sorry I had to make you do that," said Coach Darunia, who had materialized out of nowhere. "I just have to let the other students know that I don't favor you. I know they say things..." Zelda didn't answer him. "Anyway, I had to show them who was boss. I'm sorry, and I hope it doesn't happen again. You're off the hook for detention, and here's your phone," the coach said, handing Zelda's cell phone back. She took it and put it in her pocket. "And between you and me, you're better'n the rest. But don't use what we have to your advantage."

"What we _have,_" Zelda said, walking towards the parking lot, "is the typical relationship between a teacher and a student."

Coach patted her on the back. "See you in class Tuesday," he said to her, winking. He walked away. Zelda felt like throwing up again.

* * *

A/N: Eaton, Ruto's last name, is derived from two different words. "Ea" means "water", and "ton" means "town". I thought it appropriate. Saria's last name, Weld, means one who dwells in or comes from a woody area. Just thought I'd throw that out there. :) To those who read "The Phoenix", which also featured Mikau, the last name this time is not relevant. Mikau's not gonna try to blow everyone up. I just decided to keep it because I like the name and how it's spelled. And yay Fox! And the song that Zelda's phone plays when Link calls is "Come In With the Rain" by Taylor Swift. Full credits go to her.


	3. Chapter 3: Day One at Auschwitz

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: Sorry! I'm a little late! I've had this chapter written for awhile, but Hyrule High went under MAJOR changes, and I rewrote the class schedules out in great detail and looked at several actual high schools' requirements for the classes, which made the classes Zelda, Sheik, and the others were taking void and behind, so I had to redo the scheduling, which meant rewriting a great part of this chapter because this is the first day of school. I normally would have had it done a lot faster, but there were State auditions that I was obsessing over. Auditions were in Salina, which is about a four hour drive from here, and we would have had to be at Salina at eight, so the qualifiers were going to leave Friday after school and stay in a hotel. I spent literally all of my Christmas break practicing my flute, and this week was crunch time and I practiced nonstop. In the end, the weather got bad so auditions are currently postponed for this weekend. I'm leaving Friday after school. Wish me luck!!!! For now, I present to you:

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Three: Day One in Auschwitz

_The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence._

_~ Amos Bronson Alcott_

It was Tuesday, the eighteenth of August, around seven twenty in the morning. Zelda was in her room, looking in her mirror, making sure there were no final adjustments that needed to be made on her outfit. She was wearing a pair of tennis shoes. Zelda also wore a pair of dark washed jeans and a long-sleeved blue shirt. The shirt brought out her eyes. Her hair was straightened and parted to the side, with her bangs on the opposite side. Her makeup looked good. Satisfied, Zelda left her room, wolfed down a breakfast bar, brushed her teeth, and walked to Sheik's.

He answered the door almost immediately. His reddish-brownish hair was damp and hanging in his eyes, and he was brushing his teeth. He was only wearing a pair of jeans.

"Good morning," Zelda said brightly. Sheik waved to her and went to the bathroom. Zelda looked around. Sheik's house was messy, as usual. Even though they had only been neighbors for a few years, Zelda felt right at home in Sheik's house. Before she and Liam had moved to their current residence, they had visited the Baldwins frequently, and were excited when the house came up for sale.

Sheik's living room had a brown, leather armchair by the window. In the corner was a corner sofa, tan. At the end of the sofa was a small door which led to Sheik's room. There was a brown coffee table and a blue bean bag. The chair and sofa were facing a large, old television currently playing some kind of cartoon.

On Zelda's right side was a wall, and there were two doors. The first led into Sheik's little brother's, Mido's, room, and the second led into the bathroom. Zelda could hear Sheik rinsing out his mouthwash in the sink. There was another door perpendicular to the bathroom door. That led to Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin's rooms. Zelda walked around the corner and into the kitchen.

There was a large, red and gold rug at the end of the kitchen covering where the blue carpet ended and the hard wood floor began. It was a pretty rug. Mrs. Baldwin took good care of it because it had belonged to her mother, and _her_ mother before that. There was a door leading to the computer room. In the kitchen were the basics, an oven, a microwave, a dishwasher, a refrigerator, and a double sink. Mrs. Baldwin was doing dishes. Zelda could smell the bacon in the air.

"Good morning, Mrs. Baldwin!" Zelda said.

"Good morning, Zelda," Sheik's mother answered back. Mrs. Baldwin had always loved Zelda like a daughter. Zelda's mother and Mrs. Baldwin had been like sisters growing up. Mrs. Baldwin had short, brown hair a little shorter than Sheik's, warm brown eyes, and pale skin. Presently, she was wearing a necklace with a miniature ocarina on the end of it, a white shirt with a red sweater over it, and a long, jean, skirt. The sweater had music notes all over it. Zelda smiled at her attire. "How are you this morning?" she asked warmly.

"Fine, thanks," Zelda said. "What about you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," said Mrs. Baldwin. "Are you nervous? The first day of school used to always get to me!"

Ahh, the first day of school. Zelda had been dreading this for months. Since Link left, she had been assuring herself he was really at home, only a few miles away, and he had chores to do and couldn't get away. But the first day of school, with no Link to walk her to class, no Link to sit by at lunch, no Link to occasionally skip class with, she would have to confront the fact he was gone. "Eh, not too bad," she said.

"Good to hear it," Mrs. Baldwin said. "Would you like anything to eat? There are fried potatoes on the oven, I haven't put them away yet."

"I'm good," Zelda said. "I already ate."

"You ready?" Sheik asked, materializing beside Zelda. He was wearing white tennis shoes, jeans, and a long-sleeved maroon shirt with black dragons over a white tank top.

"Dragons, Sheik?" Zelda said. "Lame!" she yawned.

"Yeah, yeah," Sheik said. "MIDO!" he yelled. "YOU READY?"

"Calm down, Sheik," Mrs. Baldwin said. "I'm taking you anyway! We're leaving when _I'm _ready."

"Oh, Goddesses, I forgot," Sheik said.

"Watch your mouth," Mrs. Baldwin said sharply before turning to Zelda and putting on a sweet smile. "The truck broke down, so my husband took the Jeep. The only working car we have is the van. And I have to be at work soon, so I'll be dropping you three off at the subway."

"Ughh," Mido said, emerging from the computer room. "It's so crowded and nasty."

"Holy _cow, _Mido, did you, like, chug steroids or something?!" Zelda said, her voice high-pitched. Mido's voice, usually about the same pitch as Zelda, had dropped considerably. It was almost as deep as Sheik's and Mr. Baldwin's. He had grown, too. Before he had been several inches shorter than Zelda, and now he was several inches taller. He and Mrs. Baldwin laughed. Sheik grunted.

Mido had a barrel-shaped chest. He was more grown into it after this growth spurt, but it was still distinctly barrel-shaped and round. He was very muscled, and had a slight tan. Mido had bad acne, freckles, and bright orange hair that didn't suit him. He was fifteen, and getting ready to be a sophomore at the same high school Sheik and Zelda went to.

"Let's go!" said Mrs. Baldwin, beaming.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Sheik, Zelda, and Mido were sitting on the subway. Sheik had made Mido go away. Mido practically worshipped Sheik; Sheik thought Mido was an annoying pest. Their relationship had always been this way, and Zelda thought that eventually they would grow out of it. Sheik, on the other hand, did not.

Lucky for Mido in this instance, some of his friends took the subway, and he had found them and was talking with them. Most of Sheik and Zelda's friends had cars of their own, and so they were driving to school. Zelda and Sheik were sitting on the gold seats, waiting for the subway to start moving, when Zelda's phone buzzed. She picked it up.

_1 Text Message, Unread._

Zelda clicked on it, and Link's face popped at the top of the screen, and a text came underneath it.

_I luv u and miss u. Have a good 1st day at skool!_

Zelda smiled.

_U 2._

Sheik ignored Zelda's text conversation and was uncharacteristically quiet. And then he spoke.

"You remember my aunt's house, right?" he said.

"Oh, heck yes," Zelda said. "The rich one?"

"Right."

"With an indoor pool?"

"That's the one."

"And the exercise room?"

"Yup."

"Of course," Zelda said. The aunt Sheik was talking about was one of the most prissy, arrogant, irritating people that Zelda knew. She was filthy rich. She was a famous plastic surgeon, and her husband was big in the music industry. He was just like her. They were both the most selfish people Zelda had ever met. But they had a cool house near the lake that they liked to show off to people. "What about her?" Zelda asked.

"Well," Sheik yawned, "they invited us to go to their house this weekend. We're leaving Friday after school. Do you want to come?"

"Sure," Zelda said. While the owners of the house were awful to be around, it wasn't so bad. The house was _huge, _and three stories high. It was rumored that Sheik's aunt's husband's (Zelda was kind of ashamed that she didn't know either of their names) family had been touched by one of the Goddesses long ago, and some of them could perform magic, and good luck followed all of them. Sheik's family had never said anything to Zelda about it, but Zelda thought Sheik's uncle was one of the ones who could do magic. Well, it was _obvious _he was one who could do magic. He had a huge swimming pool on the second story of his house. Normally, that wouldn't be possible, but with him, it was. And the luck thing was obvious. They were billionaires.

"Hey, Ms. Nabooru!" said Sheik, waving to their Gerudo teacher from sophomore year. Ms. Nabooru was very pretty. She had light, almond-shaped, green eyes, dark skin, and light red hair.

"Hello, Sheik. Zelda."

"Hi," Zelda said.

"You look lost," Sheik said.

"Nah, just looking for a friend," Ms. Nabooru said. "Well, see you at school!" She walked away.

"That was weird. Usually she stops to talk," Zelda commented.

"Yeah," Sheik said, looking slightly injured. Zelda looked at him strangely. "What?"

"You like her!!" she yelled.

"No I don't," he denied. "Keep your voice down."

"Ha ha ha ha haa ha!" Zelda laughed in a sing-song way.

"Would you shut up? Din, preppy girls are _so _annoying," said a girl a few seats away.

"Excuse me?" Zelda said, leaning out. She saw a girl in their grade, Sienna Turner, scowling at her. Zelda glared back and looked away.

"Who was it?" Sheik asked.

"Sienna Turner," Zelda said. The two made a similar facial expression. Neither of them liked Sienna. Nobody really did. Sienna was an outsider. She had transferred to Hyrule High last year. She was a total rebel. She had a huge attitude about her. She failed most of her classes. She might have even been pretty if she had tried. Her hair was unnaturally dyed lime green, and she had a multitude of facial piercings. Her hair was not only bright green, but she'd cut it short and spiked it. She wore lots of black eyeliner and black lipstick, and she was very pale. She always wore black. People sometimes said that she was a witch or a devil-worshipper. She creeped most people out. Zelda yawned. "Sheik, what's your schedule again?"

"Uhh..." Sheik said, struggling to remember.... "Uhh... Damn." He fished his schedule out of his pocket.

"Ha ha," Zelda said.

"What?"

"Ha ha," she repeated. "You're gonna look like a dorky freshman, walking around with your schedule."

"So?"

"Ha ha."

Sheik made a face. "I've got Hylian Government, PE, Sheikah I, Reading, Calculus, English IV, and Physics." Zelda was mentally going through her class schedule as well.

"We've got PE, Calc, English, and Physics together."

Then, the train stopped. Zelda and Sheik found Mido and exited the train. They were a block away from the school. The day was hot and sunny. They made it to the front doors. Mido quickly found his friends.

"Well... See ya around, Z," Sheik said.

"See ya," Zelda said. The two parted, and Zelda felt very strange. It was weird not having Sheik around. She was used to him and Malon always being near her... Zelda and her two best friends, Sheik and Malon Ackerman, usually had all of their classes together.

The first bell rang. Zelda sighed and went to her first hour.

* * *

It was a requirement for each student to have one hour of reading time. Zelda's hour was first. The class was held in the library, where students sat at tables and on couches and read. It was usually pretty quiet, so when someone talked the librarian, Ms. Q Gohma, would become incredibly angry and lash out. They would check out one book at a time, and Ms. Gohma would give them a time frame in which they were supposed to read the book. At the end of the time, a book report was due. It was a fairly easy class, as long as you turned in your work on time.

Zelda walked into the spacious library of Hyrule High. A row of white Apple computers lined the wall, and there was a copy machine and printer next to them. There were plants. On all other walls bookshelves dominated. The bookshelves cut through the area of the room as well. There were ten tables, a few bean bags, and two couches. Zelda looked around for people that she knew. The only ones in the room were the Poe sisters, Amy and Beth. They were twins. There was another set of twins that had graduated last year from the same family, but Zelda couldn't remember their names.

Zelda ignored Amy and Beth as they gossiped in high-pitched voices to each other. She walked over to a green couch and plopped herself down on it. The other kids began to gradually file in.

There were Cremia and Romani, red-headed cousins of Malon; Navi and Fado, annoying transfer students from the Kokiri forest; and in walked Ganondorf, Vaati, and Agahnim. Zelda narrowed her eyes in distaste. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and purposefully looked away, trying to send vibes that she clearly did not want the three stooges to come near her.

"_Lame,_" said Agahnim. He was a step behind the other two. Agahnim was a senior as well, but in every way he seemed like he should be a little freshman. He was tiny, with thin arms and a pale complexion. He had a nasty attitude and his voice was sort of high. Vaati and Ganondorf kept him around because he amused him. They liked to make him do things that they deemed funny, like rubbing Icy Hot on his arm pits and running the mile in women's underwear at midnight on public property. Agahnim's parents had told him to stay away from Vaati and Ganondorf, but Agahnim thought they were cool and kept going back.

Vaati had brown hair that almost covered his reddish eyes. His skin was very pale. He was cold a lot, and he enjoyed wearing cloaks and coats. Today, he was wearing a black cloak, jeans, and some metal band's shirt. Vaati was the brains of the trio. He made straight A's and was the main mastermind behind the immature and mean things they did.

Ganondorf was a Gerudo. His skin was a rich olive color, and he had deep scarlet eyes. He was a _huge _guy, over six feet tall. He was several inches taller than Link. He had dark, red hair. The only facial feature that was unattractive on him was his nose. He had a large scar on it from a fight he had been in when he was younger. Many of the girls who attended Hyrule High thought Ganondorf was incredibly attractive. While Link had been in school, the two had been rivals. They fought during football and clashed constantly. The horde of girl worshippers that followed them both was pretty even. Zelda made a face. Now that Link was gone, Ganondorf's supporters would be unbearable. She could almost see the inevitable posters proclaiming Ganondorf's right to Prom King. Ugh.

"Hey, look who's here!" Ganondorf's deep voice rumbled. The Poe sisters sighed as Ganondorf, Vaati, and Agahnim marched over to Zelda. "Scoot over, Princess," he said, his voice smooth.

"No thanks," Zelda said. "I have space issues." She stood up and walked away.

"Well excuuuuse me, Princess!" Ganondorf said.

"Yeah, where are you going?" Vaati said, his voice thick with charm. "Come back. We haven't talked all summer."

"I don't intend to start now," Zelda said, taking a seat in a bean bag where she was in plain view of Ms. Gohma. She looked at the three stooges, who were murmuring to themselves. She silently laughed. They wouldn't try to mess with her while the librarian was watching. Ha.

Zelda sighed as Ms. Gohma stood up in front of the class to begin her back-to-school lecture.

* * *

PE seemed like it would be a good class. Their class was HUGE. Typically, the rule for class size was ten to fifteen, but for PE, the size didn't matter, as long as it wasn't ridiculous.

"The more the better!" Coach Darunia had told the principal. And so, Zelda's class had fifty kids in it. And including the fifty was Malon, Ruto, Saria, Sheik, Mikau, and Fox, her group of friends. Since they were all together, and PE wasn't a real class, just a class where you goofed off and had fun, Zelda thought PE would be very fun. The downside was that Sienna, Ganondorf, Vaati, and Agahnim were in this class with her. But with a class this huge, that didn't really matter. She had her friends to keep around her. PE would be a good class, it seemed.

Then was Goronian I with Miss Gomez. It was required for a scholarship sponsored by Hyrule University to have at least one full year of foreign language, and Zelda and the majority of her friends had saved that for senior year. After an ecstatic, "_Bienvenido!_" from Miss Gomez, Zelda checked her classmates. Sienna was in this class, as were a variety of other kids including the notorious Peach and Lulu. They were both total divas and clashed with each other a lot. None of Zelda's friends were in this class with her, but she could handle it.

Then was Hylian Government with Miss Nabooru. She was a Gerudo, like Ganondorf. Typically it was pretty rare to see Gerudo out and about away from the desert, but Hyrule Castle Town was known for its wide variety of foreigners.

"Hello," said Miss Nabooru in a thick Gerudo accent. Ganondorf had no accent. He was from the desert, but he had moved here at such a young age he grew up with the culture of Hylians and didn't keep the Gerudo accent. Miss Nabooru, on the other hand, had been educated in and had never left the Gerudo desert until a few years ago, when she came to Hyrule High to teach. Miss Nabooru taught history classes, and she was widely known as a good teacher.

Zelda had Ruto and her best friend, Malon Ackerman in this class.

After Government she had Calculus, taught by Mr. Auru, brother of Rauru, the principal of the school. In this class was her whole crew: Malon, Saria, Ruto, Sheik, Mikau, and Fox. Sienna was also in this class, and so was Don Gero, a boy who enjoyed wearing a frog hat and only spoke in a weird accent totally different from anywhere around here. Kids didn't mess with him- they were afraid he might snap. He seemed a bit mentally unstable.

On the other spectrum, the final classmate was a weird kid who nobody had any idea about. He (she?) had a thin, pale face with no characteristics showing it to be male or female. She (he?) had long, brown hair that also could have belonged to a girl or a boy that didn't care. It was parted in the middle. The person always wore a baggy, black shirt and baggy jeans, showing no possible curves. It never spoke, so no one knew by the voice, either. It was a mystery that haunted the school. The only thing that people noticed was that it seemed to spend a lot of time in the bathroom.

* * *

Zelda walked into the new classroom of a new teacher. Well, new to her. Mr. Don't-Know-His-Name had been here for only a few years, but he was rumored to be one of the best teachers Hyrule High School had ever seen. He was a Sheikah, Zelda knew that much. He taught two Creative Writing classes, two English IV's, one Journalism, and one English III. Zelda had never had him before.

As Zelda, Sheik, and Malon took seats by the window, she noticed that the teacher had spent a lot of time and effort into putting up tons of posters all over the class room. Not all of them pertained to English. One, in fact, caught Zelda's eye. It was a poster of a statue with a pigeon on its shoulder. It had bird poop all over its head. At the top of the poster read, "Some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue." Zelda raised an eyebrow at it, and then traffic came. About seven kids came in, chattering and loud, and the bell rang.

There was still no teacher.

"Are you still on an anti-English boat, Zelda?" Malon asked her, flipping her red hair behind her. Malon had long, dark red hair, and a pale, heart-shaped face. She had bright blue eyes and wore a pair of glasses. She was one of the smartest people Zelda knew, and the two had been best friends since they had met.

"Yup," Zelda said. She had hated all English classes for as long as she could remember, and she didn't think this year would be any different.

"So, where is this guy?" Sheik muttered. He, on the other hand, loved English. He was in the zone when he was reading a book or writing papers. Zelda thought Sheik would become an author or a journalist, but he hoped to become an oncologist someday.

"He's probably fooling with Miss Nabooru," cackled Amy Poe, who was in this class.

"I heard she's quite the loosey goosey!" said Beth. The two burst into high-pitched cackles. Zelda felt the need to clap her hands over her ears. Then, the door opened.

"Sorry I'm late, I know I'm not setting a good example, but you should get used to it. I run late a lot," the teacher confessed, walking to the dry erase board in the front of the room. "My name is Ray Amir, class. I will be your English IV teacher for this year. Good afternoon." There wasn't a word said as Ray Amir wrote his name on the board. "I said, good afternoon, class."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Amir," the class said.

"Now that's better," Mr. Amir said, turning and smiling at the class. He was very handsome. He had light hair, longer in the front and short in the back. He was wearing a long-sleeved, white dress shirt with a tie. The tie had dancing pizzas on it. The rest of his attire was normal.

Mr. Amir seemed to notice that everyone was staring at his chest.

"Oh," he said brightly. "You've noticed my tie."

"Is that a pizza?" Zelda asked dumbly.

"Why yes it is, Miss...?"

"Zelda. Zelda Royale."

"Are you wondering why I'm wearing a tie with dancing pizzas, Miss Royale?"

"Um, a little."

"Well, the answer is simple," Mr. Amir said, staring the class down. After a good, long, thirty seconds of staring, he said gravely, "A dancing pizza is more fun than a cherry pie."

"I beg to differ," said Sheik. Zelda smiled. Maybe this class wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

Zelda had only one more class after English, Physics with Mr. Luke Lakeside. He was an eccentric professor that had grown up in the Lake Hylia area.

After the seventh hour bell rang, Zelda and Sheik bid their goodbyes to Malon, and then the pair walked to the gym for cross country when Malon walked to her car.

In the new building was the new gym, where PE was held, and above was the health room, the pool room, and the lifting room. Zelda and Sheik had cross country practice right after school, and walked downstairs to the locker rooms. Zelda changed and was the second one out of the room. She was wearing a pair of columbia blue boy shorts and a white shirt. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She looked around for Sheik, and didn't see him. She decided she didn't want to wait. She was walking down the hallway when she heard raised voices. Instinct told her to hide, unless she wanted in on it. And by the way these voices were, she didn't want _any _of it. They sounded mean, and angry... Angry enough to kill.

* * *

A/N: I don't know why I made Mido Sheik's brother. I just did. Sheik needs a brother (for reasons you'll see later in here. MUAHAHAHA) and I just picked Mido.

And on the scheduling, with none of my fics in any foreseeable future will include Honor's classes or AP Classes. I go to a tiny, tiny, itty bitty school in Southeast Kansas. My class has forty kids in it, and dropping. The senior class has thirty nine. Our band has ten people. I get straight A's, am in Gifted, but there's no Honor's or AP. I have no idea how those work, or what they're called or anything, so I figure if I try to touch it I'll wind up screwing something up, so I'm not gonna. Not that my characters aren't smart (well, Ruto is kinda dumb), I just don't know how to write about the smart classes, so I'm not going to try and risk sounding like an idiot. Also, since I come from a small town (well, I lived in Cali until a month after I turned five. My parents didn't want us going to school out there. And I lived in a big city. I remember it, but not well enough to write about it.) I don't know how things like subways work (I went on one once, on a trip in eighth grade when I got to go to the east coast), so forgive my ignorance.

And I know the "Excuuuuuse me, Princess!" line is Link, but it seemed sooo appropriate here, haha. :)

And did anyone get that the weird kid no one knows is actually ???, the hand that comes out of the toilet at the Stock Pot Inn in Majora's Mask? :)

And Mrs. Q Gohma = Mrs. Quinn Gohma. Haha. Queen Gohma from OoT.

Alfred Beinstein = Albert Einstein

Until next week, when I promise that something interesting and diabolical will happen. MUAHAHAHA! :)


	4. Chapter 4: A Helping Hand

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: Oohoo, something interesting. Something wicked this way comes! SORRY, SORRY SORRY!!! I've had a lot of stuff going on this weekend! State Auditions, mostly... -.- ... Results will be posted no later than Wednesday! Gah! So nervous!

Also, I created a playlist for "Nine" so far. There's a song for each chapter.

1: With Me, Sum 41

2: Good Times, Amber Pacific

3: The Time of My Life, David Cook

4: I Got A Feeling, Black Eyed Peas

The songs enhance the feeling and mood of each chapter, and I highly encourage you to listen while you read. Without further ado, I present to you:

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Four: A Helping Hand

_You must give some time to your fellow men. Even if it's a little thing, do something for others- _

_something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it._

_~ Albert Schweitzer  
_

"... such a _bitch!_"

"Well excuse me, you little _freak._"

"Don't call me a freak, you whore!"

_Whoa!_ Zelda thought, peeking around the corner. It was Ilia Berardi, a snobby, middle-class girl in a similar financial situation to Zelda herself. Ilia was the one who had called the other girl, Sienna Turner, a freak. Sienna had just called Ilia a whore.

"_You _shut your mouth. You have no idea what you're talking about," Ilia said, malice in her voice. Her usually high voice was low and threatening, while Sienna's typically low voice was squeaky in anger.

"Oh I know _exactly _what I'm talking about!" Sienna shrieked. "And I will tell _everyone _if you do it again!"

_Do _what _again? _Zelda wondered. She knew she shouldn't be listening, she knew it was wrong, very wrong, but she had to. She couldn't pull away. It was like watching a car crash or something equally horrid. You want to look away so badly, but for some reason you can't.

"You do it and I swear to Din I will kill you, you little bitch," Ilia said. Zelda raised her eyebrows. _That _was disturbing to hear, especially when there was a killer loose who had already been the culprit of four deaths.

"You're full of empty threats and promises, Ilia," Sienna said mockingly.

"Hey!" said a deep voice, interrupting the scene. Coach Darunia came around the corner. He was wearing red basketball shorts and a white shirt that said "HYRULE HIGH SCHOOL" in red. He had a timer on a string in his hand. "What is going on? Miss Berardi? Miss Turner?"

_Oh, Din, _Zelda thought, diving back around the corner. _If Coach sees me, he'll think we have something _else _secret together. Ew. _Zelda diverted her thoughts from her own problems and focused on the scene happening right around the corner from her.

The girls were silent.

"Huh?" Darunia demanded. More silence. And then, Zelda heard him lower his voice. "If I ever catch you two using those words," he said, "it'll be detention for a month. You hear?"

"Yes, Mr. Darunia," the two girls said simultaneously.

"Good," he growled. "Get lost."

Zelda took this as her cue to leave. If one of them saw her just standing there suspiciously, her cover would be blown. Just as Zelda began walking, Ilia came around the corner. She looked at Zelda, then tipped her nose up and turned away.

_Wow, _Zelda thought. _I wonder what _that _was about.

* * *

_

Friday, August twenty first (three days after the Ilia/Sienna incident), Sheik, Zelda, and Mido were in the Jeep. Mr. Baldwin had fixed it as soon as he got home, and the kids had taken it to school that morning. All three of them had to stay after school, because Sheik and Zelda ran cross country and Mido had wrestling practice. Now all of their practices were over, and they were headed home. The three of them were all excited, but Zelda was the only one showing it. They were headed to the house Sheik's aunt and uncle owned near the lake.

"What are their names again?" Zelda asked.

"Aunt Dixie and Uncle Diddy," Sheik said. Zelda's lip twitched.

"_Diddy _and _Dixie_?" she repeated.

"You got it," Sheik said. Mido started chuckling. "What?"

"I don't know, those are just, uh, odd names," Zelda said.

"Well, don't say anything to _them _about it. They're very sensitive about their names." Sheik hesitated. "And about their vast amount of hair." Zelda laughed. Sheik smiled. "We're here," he said, pulling into his driveway. "We're leaving in about an hour."

"Okay," Zelda said, getting out. "I'm gonna go take a shower. Will you ask your mom and find out what I need to wear and bring and stuff and then come over? I've got something I need to talk to you about."

"Sure," Sheik said, as he and Mido exited the Jeep. "See you in a bit."

"Bye!" Zelda said, quickly walking over to her house. She knew how Aunt Dixie and Uncle Diddy were. In their opinion, everyone should be perfect all the time, unless they have a good excuse. Zelda knew the dress code for this weekend would be dressy, unless they were at the beach. And then as soon as they got back to the house, they would probably have about an hour of free period, and then dressy again. Ugh.

_I like jeans, not skirts and dresses, _Zelda thought as she opened her front door and walked in. "Doomie?" she yelled. No answer. He probably wouldn't be home until around six. Oh well, better for her.

She walked to her room and dumped her bags off. She grabbed her cell phone and went into the bathroom.

_I've been trying to get ahold of him, but he hasn't been answering... Maybe it'll work this time, _she thought, while turning the hot water on and kicking her shoes off. She dialed Link's number and started undressing.

After three rings, she finally heard his voice.

"Hello?"

"Link?" Zelda said. "Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure, Zel," he said. "I'm just hanging out in the dorms."

"Cool," Zelda said, setting her phone to speaker and stepping away. "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," Link said. Zelda frowned and turned the volume up all the way. "Why am I on speakerphone?" his voice said, much clearer. Satisfied, Zelda got in the shower.

"Because I'm taking a shower," she said, squirting some shampoo on her hand.

"And what is so important you need to tell me about while you are in the shower?" Link asked. "_Een the shower?_" Zelda heard an Italian-sounding voice in the background. "_A-ho, a-naked hot girl!_"

"Shut up, Mario!" Link said. He grunted.

"_A-ouch!_"

"Link?" Zelda said, snickering.

"Sorry about that," Link said dryly.

"It's fine," Zelda said. "But, um, the other day I heard a couple of girls arguing, and it scared me."

"What were they saying?" said Link seriously.

"I don't know, it was all confusing," the blonde girl said, rinsing the shampoo out of her hair. "But it sounded serious. And mean. Like they wanted to hurt each other."

"They were probably arguing over a guy or something," Link said logically. "Who was it?"

"Ilia Berardi and Sienna Turner."

"Sienna, Sienna..." Link said, searching his memory. "Oh! The green girl with an attitude?"

"That's the one," Zelda said. "And you remember Ilia."

"Yes," Link said.

"They were calling each other names, and Sienna said something about if Ilia did it again, Sienna would tell everyone."

"Did what?"

"I don't know," Zelda said, distressed. "And Ilia told her, well, if she did, that she would kill her."

"It's a figure of speech, Zel. She probably doesn't mean it."

"I know, I know," she said. "But it was the _way _she said it. Like, she was serious."

"The murders just have you freaked out," Link said soothingly. "It's fine. Neither of them probably meant anything. But what happened after Ilia threatened that?"

"Nothing. Coach came and broke it up."

"Huh," Link said. "When did this happen?"

"Tuesday."

"If it was bugging you, why didn't you tell me?"

"I _would _have, if you would occasionally pick up your phone," Zelda said, annoyed.

A silence followed. "Wait, why are you taking a shower at-" he checked a clock somewhere, "-five fifty seven P.M.?"

"Is it really? Crap, Sheik's gonna be over soon!"

"Why is Sheik coming over soon?" Link said, his friendly tone dropping.

"I'm going to his aunt's lake house," Zelda said, rubbing soap over her body super-fast.

"Since when?" Link said.

"Um, since he asked me on Tuesday."

"Does Doomie know about this?"

"Yeahhh..."

"Why didn't you ask me?"

"Oh, come on. It's only Sheik. And you haven't picked up your phone in forever."

"Only Sheik?" Link said. He was getting mad now, which was making Zelda mad. "That kid likes you more than he should."

"That 'kid' is a few months older than me," Zelda said coldly. "And no he doesn't."

"Zel, he always tries to touch you and talks to you constantly."

"That's what best friends do!" Zelda said, shutting off the water. She pushed the curtain to the side and dried herself off with a towel. She scrunched her hair and wrapped the towel around her wet body. "Are you jealous?"

"No, I'm just a little irritated because my girlfriend decides to go spend the night with a boy who likes her more than he should!" Link said, his voice raising a little.

"How do you know I'm spending the night there?" Zelda demanded. "We haven't talked in days! Just the occasional text message!"

"I apologize for spending time on homework!" Link said. "College problems and homework are a little more challenging then stupid girl fights and high school homework!"

"Well, sorry for bugging you! I apologize for being a stupid girl and picking stupid girl fights with masculine college students!" Zelda said, hanging up. She left the bathroom and threw her phone at the couch. She dressed quickly, and Sheik knocked on the door. She answered it in an old pair of sweats and a tee. She didn't say anything to Sheik, she just stormed back to her room.

"Rough shower?" Sheik asked. "Trip on the way back?"

"Not in the mood, Sheik," Zelda said, furiously brushing her hair.

"What's wrong?" he said, sitting down on her bed. She sighed.

"Nothing."

"Okay." One of the great things about Sheik was that he knew when she was genuinely in a bad mood and didn't want to talk, and he was okay with it. He knew if she wanted to talk to him about it, she eventually would. He laid on her bed while she blow dried her hair. She turned and scowled at him when he started laughing.

"What?" she barked.

"You look like a cat who just got wet and stood in front of a massive hurricane to dry off."

"Sheik, that makes no sense." All the same, Zelda looked in the mirror. Her hair was dry but crazily sticking out in all directions. She smiled. "More like a tornado than hurricane. Hurricanes are wet."

"Okay, smarty pants."

"Where did 'cat' come from? Why cats?"

"Do you have something against cats? That's racist."

"I am not- UGH!" Zelda threw her hair drier across the room at him. He rolled out of the way and onto the floor. He looked up at her in alarm, and they both started laughing. "So do I need my hair done nicely, or just done?"

"Well, right now it is six fifteen, and we plan on leaving about seven, so we'll be there about eight. You, me, and Mido may get to go do something, but you don't need to dress nice. It'll just be us."

"Mmkay," Zelda said. Sheik relayed to her what his mom told him- that Aunt Dixie and Uncle Diddy indeed would like them to be dressed nice, but today was whatever and didn't matter. Happy, Zelda made Sheik leave the room. She dressed in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved, animal print shirt and packed her more private articles of clothing away before she let Sheik come back in. He watched her do her makeup and hair, and pack her clothes and stuff away.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Yup. Let me get my toothbrush and stuff and write a note to Doomie, and I'll be ready," Zelda said. She set off to do so, and then she came back. Sheik had her bag in his arms when she came back. Zelda made sure she had the keys. She locked the door, and they were on their way.

* * *

The radio was turned up all the way to a famous classic rock song, and Mido, Sheik, and Zelda were yelling the lyrics. They had made it safely to Aunt Dixie and Uncle Diddy's house. The pair were delighted to have the Baldwins and Zelda over for the weekend. Aunt Dixie showed Zelda to her room (Sheik and Mido knew where theirs were).

The first floor was amazing. the entrance room was huge, with a domed ceiling overhead. The walls were plain white. The carpet was a grayish tan color, with a Picasso-styled rug on the ground. There was a plant in each corner, and a mahogany door leading into the small hallway. Zelda hadn't had much of a chance to tour the house yet, but she had seen a huge sitting room with a Chinese rug and a plasma screen TV, a big staircase just on the first floor.

The second floor was the one where the legendary indoor pool was, though Zelda hadn't seen it. The second floor was much more plain than the first. All it contained was the pool, the Master bedroom, two guest rooms, Uncle Diddy's office, and an exercise room. The only reason Zelda had seen that was because that's where Mido's room was, and they had stopped to drop his stuff off. The second guest room on that floor was for Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin.

The third floor was the plainest. It had three guest rooms and a sitting room, which Zelda hadn't seen. Zelda's room was on the far left of the third floor. There was a short hallway, and there was her room. The carpet was light green, and there was a cool cream-and-green rug by the foot of her bed. The bed was King-sized, with forest green covers. The room had a dresser and a night stand, but otherwise was bare.

She also had her own bathroom. The tiles were red, and she had her own toilet, sink, and bathtub. According to Sheik and Mido, so did all the other guest rooms.

Next to Zelda's room was the kids' room. The carpet was bright purple and the bed was bright green. There were glow-in-the-dark stars all over the walls and ceiling. The bathroom had a lighter shade of red for the tiles, a green bath tub, and a big kids' rug with the alphabet.

Sheik's room was on the other side. It was exactly the same as Zelda's, except the carpet was gold and the bed was a darker shade of gold. There was no rug, either.

They hadn't done any touring or looking around. Almost immediately after arriving, Sheik, Zelda, and Mido headed out to go do whatever. They had no plan, and that was part of the fun of it. They didn't need a plan. As long as they didn't get hopelessly lost, they were fine. They had a huge house with lots of food and room and expensive televisions to go back to. Life was good.

They were in a crowded part of town.

"Left, right, or straight?" Sheik shouted over the music.

"Left!"

"Right!"

Sheik turned left. They drove for a while, and then everything started to thin, with no way to turn back in sight. "Aww, who picked left?" Sheik groaned, turning the music down.

"Me," Zelda said gleefully. Sheik continued to tap out the beat of the song on the wheel.

"Scan outside and look for a parking lot or some place to turn around," Sheik said. Zelda, sitting in the passenger seat, looked to the right.

"There's one," she said, almost automatically. Sheik pulled in.

"Nice car," Mido said.

"Heck yes," Sheik said. "Mercedes Benz. Mmm, mmm, mmm. She's a beauty."

"Must have cost him a mint," said Mido. Zelda rolled her eyes. Sheik was driving extra-slow so the two boys could look at the gold car. There was a girl wearing a short skirt and pumps leaning in the passenger door.

"Ew! What trash," Zelda said, looking at the hooker as she got in the car. The girl turned when she shut the door and Zelda saw her face. She gasped.

"What?" Sheik said, completing the turn and going the way that they had come.

"That was Ilia!" Zelda said.

"Nuh-uh."

"Yuh-huh!" Zelda insisted. "I saw her!"

"It was far away, you probably imagined it," Mido said. "Turn the radio up!"

* * *

But she didn't imagine it. An hour later, they were still cruising. Mido and Sheik had decided to go by the lake and look at it. The lake was beautiful. The water was clear, clean, crystal blue. Lake Hylia was supposed to be the cleanest body of water in the country. It was so clean, it was rumored people could drink from it without getting sick.

There was a beach and a pier that people could visit. A wide area around the beach was margined off with buoys so boats couldn't go in, and the rest of the lake was fair game to people who wanted to water ski and tube. There was another area on the far side of the lake that was sectioned off for fishermen.

Around the lake was a thick, wooded area. There were camp spots in the woods near the water for campers to stay. Zelda, Sheik, and Mido wouldn't be bothering. When a rich aunt lived only a few miles away, why would you live outside?

The trio continued to drive a few miles south into the woods.

"Sheik, you know where you're going, right?" Zelda asked.

"Of course," Sheik said. "I've been to this lake so many times, I know it like the back of my hand."

"Which side is the back of your hand? Because they both seem like the back to me," Mido said.

"Mido, if I were not buckled in and facing the other direction right now, I would smack you upside the head, thrust it out the window-"

"Sheik!"

"Zelda, this is a kind way of putting it. I do censor my language when there are ladies present."

"No, that's not it. Stop!" Zelda said. Sheik stopped.

"What?" he said, turning the radio down.

"It's the car from earlier!" Zelda announced, pointing ahead and to the side of the road. Indeed, it was the gold Mercedes. And the girl they had seen earlier was in the passenger seat. They couldn't see the driver, but they could see the girl's face clearly. "Hah! It _is _Ilia! Caaaalled it!" Zelda said victoriously. Sheik ignored her and looked at Ilia.

It appeared she was arguing with the driver. Her face was angry, and her body was twisted so she could see the driver. Zelda saw a hand fly up and hit her.

"Oh my gosh!" she said in surprise. Ilia was crying now. Zelda saw the driver reach over and open the passenger door. The driver tried to shove Ilia out of the car, but Ilia was holding on. The driver began going. Zelda didn't say anything. Sheik put the car into gear and went forward. "Sheik?" Zelda said in alarm. "I don't know if we should intrude..."

"He's shoving her out of a moving _car, _Z. It looks like she could use some help," he said. As they pulled around the corner they had been hiding, the driver of the Mercedes gave Ilia a final shove. Ilia fell out of the car and on her back. Her legs flew up in the air, and the Mercedes guy drove off. Ilia stood up and started to run after him, screaming something (probably profanities). Sheik pulled up next to her and rolled down the passenger window.

"Need a ride?" he asked.

"No!" Ilia shrieked. "Not from you, you freaking scum!"

"Hey, now, easy," Sheik said. "I'm just trying to help." He put the car in park and opened his door.

"Sheik?" said Zelda and Mido in unison. They watched Sheik cross around the Jeep and make his way towards Ilia.

"No! No! No!" she screamed at him, backing away.

"Ilia, calm down," he said softly, reaching out towards her. She hit his hand as hard as she could. Zelda could her the sound of flesh-on-flesh.

A sick feeling came to her stomach and a wave of anger hit her. She furiously undid the seat belt and exited the car as well. She strode over to Ilia, with every intention of ripping her perfect blonde hair out of her perfect round skull... As she approached her, Sheik grabbed her hand.

"I got this," he said. "Ilia. Let me give you a ride."

"No," she growled. Her chest was pumping up and down, and her mascara was in rivulets down her face. She was in hysterics, crying and panting and screaming all at the same time.

"Why not?" he challenged, his voice still calm.

"I don't need one," she said, turning her nose up and walking off.

"Just let her go!" Mido yelled from the car.

"Ilia, we're miles away from anyone. Just let me give you a ride back to my aunt's house, and you can call someone to come pick you up. I won't tell anyone if it's shame that's making you not want to let me give you a ride."

"You know nothing of shame."

"Come on. It's dark, we're miles out in a big city... There's an indoor pool."

"I don't _want _to swim, you freaking moron."

"Okay, we don't have to swim," Sheik said, backtracking. "Please? Come with us?"

"Oh, _fine,_" Ilia said, turning around and heading for the Jeep. She walked to the back seat, opened the door, and slammed it shut. Sheik winced.

The ride home was extremely awkward. The radio was off (Ilia whined about how annoying it was) and no one spoke the entire, thirty-minute drive back to Dixie and Diddy's house. When they pulled in the driveway, Ilia gawked for a brief second, and then her snottiness came back and she followed them to the front door. They walked through the entry room, and Sheik opened the door into the hallway, but Ilia would go no further. She merely whipped out her cell phone and started crying into it.

"Baby, I'm sorry," she said. "I want to have fun. I'll have fun. I promise... No, I'm okay with you drinking... No, I don't want my money... Yes, it's okay... Will you come pick me up? ..." Ilia quickly rattled off the address of Sheik's aunt's house. Zelda looked at Sheik incredulously.

_She's not calling him back, is she?_ Zelda mouthed. Sheik shrugged.

"Okay... Bye." Ilia hung up. "You know," she sniffed, "it would have been nice of you to give me some privacy." Zelda and Sheik exchanged glances.

Zelda, Sheik, and Ilia (Mido had gone to watch TV and stall Dixie and Diddy so they wouldn't know this rude visitor was here) waited awkwardly for Ilia's ride to come get her. When the gold Mercedes pulled into view, Ilia left. No goodbyes, no thank you.

"What a witch!" Zelda said.

"I know," Sheik said, walking towards the door. "I wonder where she's going?"

Zelda shrugged, and looked at the gold Mercedes as it drove away. The license plate was a vanity plate, and it read "DA BOMB". Zelda stored this away in her memory- she had a feeling this would be important later.

She had no idea.

* * *

A/N: And I have no idea how one talks on a cell phone in the shower, but it IS POSSIBLE, because my friends would talk about being on their cells in the shower. I would assume you do it by putting it on speaker and setting it on the toilet or something, like Zelda does, but wouldn't you be unable to hear each other with the water going? And speakerphone is hard to hear, anyway. But oh well. 'Tis only fan fiction. :D Haha, I kind of like the fact that Sheik is related to monkeys.


	5. Chapter 5: Sheik's Garden Snakes

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: The song "Chemicals React" is a good song to describes the section where they are on the boat. Also, while writing it, I realized the song "Why" by Secondhand Serenade describes Sheik pretty well in that same scene. So, fitting into our playlist:

1: With Me- Sum 41

2: Good Times- Amber Pacific

3: The Time of My Life- David Cook

4: I Got A Feeling- Black Eyed Peas

5: Chemicals React (Remix)-Aly and AJ

Enjoy!

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Five: Sheik's Garden Snakes

_Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures, _

_so that society has to take the place of the victim and on his behalf demand atonement or grant forgiveness; _

_it is the one crime in which society has a direct interest._

_~ W. H. Auden_

_Knock._

_Knock._

_Knock._

"Ughh..." Zelda groaned.

"You awake?" asked a male voice that Zelda recognized.

_Sheik? What the heck is _he _doing her? _Zelda thought, sitting up. _Wait a minute, where am I?! _She panicked for a moment, realizing she wasn't in her own bed, and then remembered she had gone with Sheik to his aunt's beach. Oh.

Feeling like quite the idiot, she got out of bed and walked to the door. The carpet was soft and smooth against her feet, and the cold air rushed over her bare legs and arms. Goose bumps covered her. She opened the door.

"Yeah?" she asked, exhausted.

"Well, I just came to tell you that breakfast is in about an hour," Sheik said, leaning against the door frame. He was wearing a pair of athletic shorts and an old, gray, tee shirt. His hair was shaggy and hanging in his eyes, completely tangled. He had a few freckles on his nose and cheekbone. He flipped his hair to the side, exposing brown eyes, and yawned. "And Aunt Dixie and Uncle Diddy want everyone looking sharp for breakfast. We'll change back before we hit the lake. Alright?"

"Okay," Zelda said sleepily. "What time is breakfast?"

"Eight thirty."

"What day is it?"

"Saturday, August twenty second."

"Mmkay. Thanks," she said.

"Yup." Sheik turned and walked away back to his room. Zelda shut the door and turned around.

She debated on going back to bed, but in the end the sense telling her to get ready overruled it. She quickly showered, and the water woke her up. She got out and wrapped her hair up in the towel and put a robe on. She did her makeup (very light, and what she did wear was waterproof) and blow dried and straightened her hair. She pulled the first sun dress she could see out of her closet (after they had come home last night, she had hung up her clothes and put them in the closet) and put it on. She slipped a pair of flip flops on and looked at her reflection.

Her flip flops were brown with teal straps. Her skin was light. The dress cut off at her knees. The bottom strip was a few inches long, teal, and wrinkled. The entire dress was wrinkled- that was the style. There was a brown strip that looked the same as the teal, but for the color. There was a section about as big as the two strips put together above that. It was light brown with blue and white flowers. There was another big teal section, then a brown and teal one, then a cream strip, and then the light brown with blue and white flowers again over her ribcage. Brown covered her chest. Her long, blonde hair was straight and touched the top of the dress. It covered the brown spaghetti straps. She didn't wear earrings or any kind of jewelry. Zelda smiled at her reflection, put on some perfume, and exited the room.

The carpet out here was gray, and the walls were cream. Zelda walked down the short hallway, and entered a wider one. The staircase was visible. It was surrounded by a gold fence. Zelda walked past it and made a left turn down the hallway. There was a door at the end of it to Sheik's bedroom. Zelda walked up to it and knocked on it.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sheik's voice answered. Zelda opened the door and walked in.

Sheik's room looked exactly like hers, minus the rug and plus gold carpeting and bedding. The walls were a regal-looking dark red. Sheik was laying on his bed, his hair a tangled mess. He was wearing dress pants and a long-sleeved white shirt with black swirls on the arms and chest and tiny navy lines going up and down. His feet were bare.

"It's time to go," she said softly, walking over to him and touching his arm. The act sent sparks through her. Curious, she put her entire palm flat against his bicep. The fiery sensation continued... _Huh, _she thought, her heart doing somersaults. Sheik rolled over and gave her a funny look. "What?" she asked.

"Are you feeling my manly muscles?"

"Um, no," Zelda lied, blushing. Sheik looked at her reproachfully, the corners of his mouth hinting at a smile. "_What _manly muscles?" she asked, squeezing his arm.

"The pythons that you are currently violating."

"Pythons? Tsh. More like garden snakes," Zelda teased. Sheik's arms shot out quickly and grabbed her. "Hey!" she said, laughing as he pulled her onto the bed beside him. She struggled to get away, but his strong arms wouldn't budge. "_Sheik!_"

"They're not garden snakes now, are they?" he said softly in her ear, his breath smelling like mints. Zelda suddenly froze. His hard, warm body against hers... The strong arms locking her and keeping her from getting away... The soft voice in her ear... Zelda suddenly had a flashback of the dream she had had about the murders the night that Link had left.

"Okay, Sheik," she said, calmly pushing him off. "Talk about feeling violated." She was joking, but she still felt kind of nervous as she stood up. Sheik smirked at her. "Seriously, though, have you been working out? You used to be chubby. And weak. And short."

"And what? Now I'm thin and strong and tall?" Sheik asked, hunting around for his shoes.

"Yeah," Zelda said softly, her head feeling like a balloon. What was wrong with her?

"I stretched out a bit this summer. And going to the Y every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday all summer long," Sheik said.

"Huh," Zelda said. "Well, it's paying off." _Stop it! Why are you flirting with him? Stop!_

Sheik smirked, satisfied. Zelda wanted to make another sarcastic remark as he laced up his shoes, but she refused to let herself. She didn't want to come off as flirtatious. The _last _thing she needed was Link to have some competition.

... _Link, _she thought. Her heart stopped doing little flips and guilt settled over her. She needed to talk to him, and apologize over last night...

"Be right back," she told Sheik.

"Where are you going?" Sheik asked, standing up.

"I need to call Link," Zelda said. Sheik's face fell.

"Oh," he said. "I'll wait."

"Okay," Zelda said. She went back to her room and found her purse. She took her phone out and opened it. There weren't any new texts or missed calls. The guilt intensified. _He's probably still mad, _she thought. She dialed his number and listened to the ring. It rang and rang, and Zelda realized he wasn't going to pick up. She sighed, grabbed her purse, and walked out of the room, listening for his voicemail.

"_Hey, it's Link. I'm, uh, not here right now,_" there was a feminine giggle in the background, "_so just leave your name and number after the beep, and I'll try to get back to you._" BEEP.

"Hey, it's me," Zelda said. She inhaled. "I was, uh, calling to apologize for last night, and hoping I could talk to you. I miss you..." there was another pause as Zelda waited for him to pick up. Her heart ached. "And I guess that's all. Bye." She hung up and tossed her phone in her purse. With a heavy sigh, she walked down the hallway. She could hear the TV on, so she walked past the staircase and Sheik's room into the sitting room.

There was a plasma screen TV on the far wall between two windows, and two corner couches against the walls. One of the couches were tan, and the other was white. Between the two was a black, leather sofa. Sheik was sitting in the corner of the tan sofa. Zelda sat down by him and looked away.

"That was fast," he said.

"He didn't answer," Zelda said. Her voice was sad. Sheik waited a moment, and turned the TV off.

"We've got three minutes to get downstairs," he said.

"Okay," Zelda said. The two got up together and walked down to breakfast.

* * *

"Sheik, I'm scared," Zelda said bluntly.

"You'll be fine," Sheik assured her.

"Sheik!" she yelled, panic rising as Mr. Diddy Kong released the rope and they flew off behind. She screamed and gripped Sheik's arm.

After a spectacular failure at wake boarding, they had decided to parasail instead. Being good hosts, the Kongs had insisted that that Zelda go first. Since their parasailing equipment seated two passengers and Zelda was afraid, the Baldwins made Sheik go with her. Sheik didn't want to do it. It was, "Too lame." Zelda was scared out of her mind.

The pair began flying up high, high, higher and farther and farther from the boat.

"Sheik!" she cried again, her knuckles white from gripping his arm. Her right hand was around his, and her left hand was gripping the metal bar. "Sheik, we're gonna die!"

"No, we're not," he said, his tone bored. "I promise. And if we were to crash, I would save you."

"How?" Zelda demanded.

"Well, what are you afraid of?"

"I'm scared of that cord breaking and flying off into oblivion with only _you _for company, and eventually we'll gain too much ground, and the chute will burn, and we'll plummet to our untimely deaths!"

"Are you smoking something?"

"No, but we're gonna be!" Zelda said, hysterical.

"Shh," Sheik said, closing his eyes and stroking her hand. "Just stop freaking out, and enjoy the fact we're up here and no one can bother us with chores, or gas money, or homework."

"You're a dumb ass," Zelda said, pulling her hand back.

"I've never heard _that _one before," Sheik muttered.

Zelda turned and looked. The water was speeding away beneath her, and the air was whipping her face, but it was... pleasant. It wasn't so scary after all.

She looked up and saw... everything. She saw the tree tops, the campers, the other boats, the kids on the beach pointing and laughing... She pushed all of her problems out of her mind. She felt like she was flying, like an angel, or a bird. It was amazing. She was infallible, unstoppable... Her face broke out in a grin, and she turned and looked at Sheik. He was watching her with a strange look on his face.

A moment ago, he had opened an eye to look at her and make sure she wasn't having a panic attack. He had seen her looking her most beautiful. When she let her guard down and forgot about Link and all her other problems she looked... Well, like an angel. Like his angel. _Nope, she's Link's, _he thought bitterly. She turned and looked at him, a smile spreading across her face. His heart pounded, and a childhood crush turned gawky preteen fantasy turned young love hammered on his chest and throat.

"You okay?" she asked him. He nodded and faked a smile. For some reason, she started wildly laughing. For the second time that day, he asked if she was smoking something. She laughed harder. He joined her.

* * *

Zelda was lying on a towel on the beach. She was fair-skinned and didn't tan, but she still enjoyed the feel of the sun on her skin. She was wearing sunglasses and an orange swim suit. Sheik and Mido's parents and the Kongs were grilling hamburgers and hot dogs down the beach a way, and Mido and Sheik were attempting to boogie board.

_With little success, _Zelda thought, watching them. Sheik flipped over, and Mido laughed. Zelda laughed when Sheik shoved him underwater. Sheik turned and walked over to her. He flopped down beside her.

"How goes it?" Zelda asked, snickering.

"Pretty well," Sheik said. Zelda laughed. A silence settled. "Are you having fun?"

"Yup! Thanks for inviting me!" the blonde said. "What about you?"

"Probably more fun than I should be having," Sheik said. "Listen, I've been thinking, and-"

Suddenly, a sappy love song began playing. Zelda sat there for a second, and then recognized the ring tone and flipped on her stomach and began searching through her bag frantically. She pulled her phone out. "Hello?" she said, trying to speak calmer than she felt.

"Hello?" Link said. There was a silence. Zelda looked at Sheik. He was on his back with his arms over his eyes. "Where are you?" he asked.

"Lake Hylia," Zelda said testily.

"With who?" Link asked, his voice tone matching hers.

"Sheik," Zelda said. "And yes, before you ask, I _am _having fun." She could have sworn Sheik smirked for a second. A silence followed.

"Look, I'm sorry," Zelda and Link said in unison. They both laughed.

"I'm sorry, Z," Link said, using his favorite nickname for her. "It's just been really stressful over here. No one I know... Homework... No you."

"I'm sorry too," Zelda said. "I shouldn't have reacted like I did."

"No, you were right," Link admitted. "It was wrong of me not to trust you, regardless of what's going on over here."

"It's okay," Zelda told him, smiling.

"Din, this is so weird," Link said. He sounded resigned.

"What?"

"Being away from you!" he said loudly. "I miss you, Z."

"I miss you too," Zelda said. Sheik stuck a finger in his mouth and rolled over so Zelda could see him clearly. He acted like he was vomiting all over the beach. Zelda rolled over on the other side. "It's been hectic here, too. We ran into Ilia again last night."

"You did?" Link said, interested. "All the way out by the lake?"

"Yeah," Zelda said, recounting everything. Link was quiet.

"Zelda, I want you to listen to me very closely," Link told her. Zelda froze.

"Yeah?" she said softly. She wondered what Sheik was doing, and she rolled over to look. His face was only a couple inches from hers, and he was making a demonic face. Zelda screamed and jumped. Sheik started uncontrollably laughing, and Zelda threw some sand at him.

"Zel?" Link said.

"Sorry," Zelda said, picking up her white cover-up and slipping it on. "Sheik's being a moron."

"Ah," Link said. He let it drop. Zelda tied the rope around the waist of her cover-up and slipped some flip flops on. She started walking down the beach. "Well, are you listening?"

"Yup," Zelda said.

"Don't go anywhere that people can't see you or hear you. I don't want you going anywhere alone, either," Link told her. "You understand? Even if it means Baldwin has to go with you."

"Why?" Zelda asked. She was sure a moment where Link told her to interact with Sheik would never come again in a thousand years.

"Because of the murders," Link said. "They're happening in your area, and it _is _a serial killer, whatever the news says."

"How do you know?" Zelda asked, continuing her walk. She jumped out of the way of a screaming child running into the water.

"Because," Link said softly. "There's a guy I met here. He dated one of the girls that was killed."

"That's awful!"

"Yeah," Link said. "He told us last night information about the murders that the cops don't want the public to know."

"Why?"

"They don't want to create a panic," the college boy said. "This guy, he hunts the girls. He abducts them, beats them, and sets them in the woods at night far away. On all of their feet, they've found small cuts and abrasions. It's from running barefoot. He hunts them like animals, Zelda. He _is _an animal. Z, you there?"

"Yeah," she said faintly.

"And that's not all," Link said. "Once he's done 'hunting' them, he tortures them to death."

"Is that how they know it's a serial killer?" Zelda asked.

"Well, that," Link said, cutting himself off, like there was something he didn't want to tell her.

"And?" Zelda pressed, feeling light-headed.

"He, ah, draws the number on them after he kills them."

"He draws it?"

"Yeah."

"With what?" Zelda asked.

"A pen."

"And why didn't you want me to know that?" Zelda asked. Link sighed.

"With a knife."

"What?"

"He cuts it into their skin. Not very deep. Just like a scratch. Just so that the autopsy person will find it."

"What?" Zelda asked. Link repeated himself.

"So please, for the love of _Din, _keep someone around you at all times."

"Okay."

"It's killing me not to be there to protect you, Z."

"It's okay," Zelda said, sensing their conversation was almost over. She turned and walked back to where Sheik was lying down, waiting for her.

"I have to go, I have homework," Link said.

"Okay."

"I love you. Goodbye. Be careful," he told her.

"I will. I love you too. Bye," Zelda said, hanging up.

"I love you too! Bye!" Sheik mocked in a high-pitched voice.

"Grow up," Zelda said.

"Ooh, an angry viper. I'm scared."

"Oh, bite me." Zelda stormed off in the other direction, ignoring what Link had told her. That probably didn't apply here, anyway. There were tons of people around. And she was an eighteen-year-old perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She didn't need a babysitter.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Sheik said, walking after her. "Let's go for a walk."

"I'm not supposed to go where people can't hear or see me."

"Is he your warden now?"

"Shut _up!_" Zelda said, whirling on him. She was very close to smacking him. Sheik saw his mistake.

"Why did he say that?" he asked, walking along the beach with her. Zelda didn't answer. "Are you not supposed to tell me or something?"

"It's not that," she said. "It's just kind of personal, I guess."

"Huh. I swear to _Din _if it's about making out or making love-"

"Oh, will you stop?" Zelda said, her voice rising in irritation. "You know we don't... do that." Sheik smiled. That was the one thing that he admired about Link. Zelda used to be a hard party-goer and drinker before Liam laid down the law, and consequently she'd had sex a couple times. When she and Link had started dating, _he _had laid down the law on that, er, front. Sheik had no idea if Zelda wanted to or anything, but he liked to believe that she had seen the error of her ways and changed her mind.

"No, it was about the murders..." Zelda said. She recounted the conversation as boy and girl walked down the beach. The crowd of people gradually thinned as they made it closer to the tree line.

"That's _sick,_" Sheik said.

"You better be saying that in a bad way," Zelda said, her face troubled.

"Of course!" Sheik said. "That's... terrible."

"He's not such a jail warden after all, is he?" Zelda challenged. Sheik made a face.

"He's still too controlling."

"How? Give me _one _example."

Sheik was silent.

"You're just picking for things!" Zelda said angrily. "Stop! I love you both, I don't like it when you talk bad on each other!"

And awkward silence followed.

"What did you say?" Sheik asked.

"Brotherly-sisterly," Zelda said matter-of-factly. _Good cover up, smart one, _she thought, irritated at herself and embarrassed.

_Oh. Of course, _Sheik thought.

They walked in silence, nearing the tree line.

"Food's probably ready," Sheik said lamely.

"Yeah," Zelda said. As they turned to walk back, Zelda's phone rang.

"If it's him-" Sheik started.

"It's Malon," Zelda said, slightly confused. Malon rarely called her. It was usually a text message.

Malon Ackerman was Zelda's best female friend. Malon was a senior, like Zelda and Sheik. She had long, red hair that rippled down to her mid-back and full bangs on both side of her face. She was very pale and had freckles on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were blue. Malon was very smart. Malon, Sheik, and Saria were the brains of their group of friends. Malon and Zelda were inseparable, but they never called each other after they had both got texting on their phones. Zelda wondered why Malon was calling now.

"Hello?" she asked.

"Hello?" Malon said, her voice panicky. "Zelda?"

"Yeah, who else would it be?"

"I don't know, don't screw with me," Malon said. Zelda had an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

"Are you okay?"

"_I'm _fine. Where are you?"

"Lake Hylia."

"Oh, Din," Malon said. "Who are you with?"

"Sheik and his family. Why?"

"You're staying with them all weekend, right?"

"Yeah. What is the problem?" Zelda said.

"_All weekend?_"

"YES! Malon, if you don't tell me what the fricking problem is-"

Sheik held out his hand for the phone. Zelda didn't want to, but she gave it to him. If she freaked out while on the phone with Malon, the two would probably start fighting, and they'd never know what the problem was.

"Hello? Hey, it's Sheik," he said into the phone. Zelda blamed her quickly-beating heart on stress and nerves. "What's the problem?" Sheik asked. There was a long silence. "Are you _kidding _me?" he said, his eyes wide. "When? ... Where? ... Holy crap."

"Sheik, what is it?" Zelda asked waspishly.

"Okay, yeah. We'll be careful," Sheik said. "You too. See ya, Mal." He hung up. He had a dumbfounded look on his face.

"SHEIK BALDWIN, YOU TELL ME RIGHT-"

"Ilia's dead," he said quietly. Zelda's anger disappeared.

"W-what?" she said.

"They found her body about an hour or two ago. Her parents called someone's parents, who called Malon's parents," Sheik explained slowly, looking at Zelda apprehensively. "She was murdered, and Malon said it was by the same psycho that killed the other girls."

"How could she know that?" Zelda asked. There was a long silence.

_"This guy, he hunts the girls. He abducts them, beats them, and sets them in the woods at night far away. He hunts them like animals, Zelda. He _is _an animal. Once he's done hunting them, he tortures them to death."  
_

_"He hunts them like animals."_

_"Hunts like animals."_

_"Like animals."_

_"Like animals."_

"Zelda?" Sheik said. "You okay?"

"No," she whispered. She turned and vomited her guts into the dark woods.

* * *

A/N: I have never been parasailing before, so I probably got that section completely wrong, but whatever, I tried. :) Also, I _did _watch that video of Aly and AJ parasailing and that's where I got the song, because I was trying to find a decent video of someone parasailing so I could accurately write about it (somewhat), and that song was playing in the background. Later on, while trying to write it, that song was the only one that kept going through my head, so I looked it up again and found out who sang it. I'd never even heard of Aly and AJ before this chapter. :D

And don't Link and Malon have amazing timing with phone calls? Hah!


	6. Chapter 6: A Drive

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: Duhn da da duuuuhn, the plot thickens! Not a lot goes on in this chapter, but it doesn't need to. :) This chapter's kinda short, but it's better than a chapter of filler. Ugh. I KNOW, I KNOW, I'M LATE!!! Sorries (sad face). Maybe, this means the next chapter will be posted tomorrow. Hmmmm? So, our playlist now goes:

1: With Me- Sum 41

2: Good Times- Amber Pacific

3: The Time of My Life- David Cook

4: I Got A Feeling- Black Eyed Peas

5: Chemicals React (Remix)- Aly and AJ

6: Walking After You- Foo Fighters

Please listen to the song. :D It'll enhance the experience. Enjoy!

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Six: A Drive

_Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it._

_~ Michel de Montaigne_

It was Sunday, August twenty-third. Zelda Royale got back to her house about six, and the first thing she did was change into a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. She opened up her computer and went to MyFace, trying to forget the hellish weekend.

Ilia, getting pushed out of a moving vehicle. (Albeit, a slow-moving one.)

Ilia, being mean when Sheik had been nice.

Sheik, causing Zelda to have weird feelings.

Ilia, getting murdered.

Going to the police station with Sheik and explaining everything they'd seen and done.

The awkward ride home.

She needed _Link._ Link could always calm her down. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to sit in his lap and cry and let him play with her hair and tell her it would be okay. She wanted so badly, but there was no way to get it. Frustrated, she went to Link's MyFace profile to see if that might make her feel closer to him. What she saw made her feel the opposite.

At first, it seemed incredibly innocent. A few status updates ("made it safely!", "missing all you guys back home, but having a great time!"), a few Wall comments from Mario and Luigi, and a couple new pictures. Zelda clicked on them, and it took her to the pictures directly. Link was hanging out with friends, laughing and having a great time. Zelda clicked through them, feeling strangely homesick (which was weird. _She _was at home. She missed Link. Who was away from home. Oh, the irony!) and she came to a picture of Link. He had a beer in his hand and was laughing.

_What the heck?_ Zelda thought in annoyance. _He never wanted to go to parties when _I _wanted to!_

And there was another thing: there was a pretty blonde girl hanging on his arm.

It wasn't just her hanging on his arm- that wouldn't have bothered Zelda too badly-, but he had his arm around her waist and was pulling her very closely, like he'd done to Zelda so many times right before kissing her.

She stared at the picture a couple more minutes, and then realized that there was a digital clock behind him. _Friday, August 21st! 6:00 PM! _The clock proclaimed. Zelda thought back to Friday night, when the two of them had been arguing.

_"Huh," Link said. "When did this happen?"_

_"Tuesday."_

_"If it was bugging you, why didn't you tell me?"_

_"I __would __have, if you would occasionally pick up your phone," Zelda said, annoyed._

_A silence followed. "Wait, why are you taking a shower at-" he checked a clock somewhere, "-five fifty seven P.M.?"_

_"Just hanging in the dorms", eh?_ Zelda thought angrily. This picture had been taken three minutes after their argument. She shut her computer and laid down. She shut off her light and tried to go to sleep, but with no luck. It was only six forty five, but everyone had been telling her to take it easy. Link (she had called him soon after Malon's call), the Baldwins, the Kongs, Sheik, Mido, Malon, Liam... But it _was _six forty five, after all. Zelda stood up. She didn't feel like brushing her hair, so she took a white ball cap out of her closet and put it on top of her head. She walked out into the house and found Liam in his room, playing guitar.

"Doomie?" she asked. "Can I borrow your keys?"

"Why?" he asked, strumming a few chords.

"I want to go for a drive. Clear my head," she said.

"Sure. Be careful," he told her, taking the keys from his dresser and tossing him to her. "Don't be too long," he said, going back to his guitar. Zelda quietly shut his door, listening to him sing along softly. She smiled affectionately, slipped on some shoes, and headed out the door.

Liam drove an old Buick from 1986 that barely ran. Zelda got in, started the engine, and drove.

She didn't really have a destination in mind, and neither was she thinking about anything in particular, when she drove past the cemetery.

Zelda tried not to look at the half-dug hole that had been made for Ilia, whose funeral was in two days. She ignored the new graves of the murdered girls, but there were two graves she couldn't ignore...

_It was three years ago. Zelda was fifteen years old, and in the ninth grade at Hyrule High School. She was obsessed with popularity and money. Where the Royales lacked in the money department, Zelda made up for with friends._

_"Hey, Zelda!" a male voice called to her after cross country practice. Zelda turned and smiled. It was Link Finlay, a popular sophomore who played Varsity football. He wanted to be a professional football player when he got older, and he was good enough to._

_"Hey!" Zelda said, clutching her books to her chest, as if that would somehow conceal her thumping heart._

_"How about you let me give you a ride home?" Link said._

_"Sure!" the girl told him. "Just let me tell my other ride he won't be needed."_

_"He?" Link asked, his eyebrow raised._

_"Y-yeah, he," she said. "H-he's just a friend though."_

_"Just a friend, huh?" Link said. He paused. "Good enough for me! Why don't you tell him, and we'll get going?"_

_"Okay!" Zelda said. She and Link walked to Sheik's jeep, where he was waiting in the driver's seat. He had reddish brown hair that was short, and brown eyes. His skin was light, and he was chubby. He was also the same height as Zelda, five foot two. "Hey, Sheik!" she said. "I'm riding home with Link today!"_

_"And every other day this week," Link said, raising his chin slightly. Sheik gave him a strange look._

_"Well, good for you," he said. "Especially considering it's Friday. See you later, Z." Irate, Sheik pulled out._

_"Z, huh?" Link said as they walked to his car. "Using the first letter of your name as a nickname."_

_"Yup," Zelda said lamely. There was suddenly a very loud honk on the horn. The two looked up to see what idiot was causing such a racket. "That's my brother!" Zelda said, blushing. "I wonder what he wants."_

_"Hmm. You better should find out," Link said. "I don't want to intrude. I'll be over here."_

_"Okay, Link," Zelda said, enjoying how his name felt on her tongue. He smiled crookedly at her, and then walked away. Feeling like she was floating, Zelda soared over to Liam's car, an old Buick. "What do you want?" she hissed into his open window. "I'm making social progress, here!"_

_"Is that what that was about?" Liam asked her, nodding at Link. "How old is he?"_

_"Sophomore. Like it matters anyway," Zelda said._

_"Ah," Liam said. "Listen, Zelda, you need to get in the car..."_

_"I'm riding home with Link."_

_"No, you're not."_

_"Yes I am."_

_"You're going to go over there and tell him you're riding home with me, or I'm gonna go do it for you, got it?" Liam said. Zelda narrowed her eyes. Liam was usually too cool to do something like that, but something about his tone of voice suggested he had crossed a new line. This was different._

_Angry and kind of nervous, Zelda stomped over to the car where Link was waiting._

_"My brother's being an ass and I have to go with him," she told him._

_"Okay," he said. "Hey, uh, do you want to go out sometime?"_

_"Yeah, sure!" Zelda said, her heart swelling._

_"Okay," Link said, looking like he'd got a load off his chest. "I'll call you tonight, okay?"_

_"Sure thing! Bye, Link!" Zelda said. She skipped back over to Liam's car and sat in the passenger seat. When Liam unbuckled and turned to look at her, she remembered her previous irritation. "Look, are we gonna go, or..." Zelda trailed off, as she recognized a single tear on Liam's cheek._

_"Zelda, there's been an accident..." he told her. Fifteen year old Zelda stared at him blankly..._

... and eighteen year old Zelda stared at the cemetery as she drove by. She shook her head, trying to clear it of foul memories. After the accident and funeral, Zelda had gone to live at her aunt's house until Liam proved himself worthy to be her legal guardian. Zelda had moved in with Liam. She had been to a party or two before the accident, but afterward, she abused Liam's willingness to let her do as she wanted. She had drank, and even smoked a cigarette once. She had had drunken sex with two guys during parties, and fooled around with a few more. Then the lady who came to visit their house once a month had told Liam to put his foot down, or Zelda would go back into her aunt's custody. Liam had taken her advice, and Zelda stopped partying and drinking.

This all happened over the course of Zelda's freshmen year. All her friends but Sheik felt awkward, like Zelda was alienating herself and didn't know how to connect. Link had stood in the background the entire time, not knowing Zelda well enough to try to talk to her and coach her through it, but caring too much to forget about her. Once she stopped going to parties, Link asked her out on a date, and then asked her to be his girlfriend.

"Oh, Link," Zelda said, her eyes tearing up. She took a left turn and drove awhile, again, not thinking about much. She took random turns, and was just heading home when a glint of gold caught her eye. _No way, _she thought, automatically changing her course to follow the gold car. She sped up, and realized it was a Mercedes. They were going down Broadway of Hyrule Castle Town. They were getting farther away from home, but Zelda was not giving this up. A couple cars got between her and the Mercedes. She cursed under her breath. She couldn't see who the driver was or what the license plate said, but she continued to follow nonetheless.

The Mercedes drove further out of town, where the trees began growing thicker. Zelda followed anxiously, and then it was just her and the Mercedes on the road. Her heart pounded.

The license plate read "DA BOMB".

"Oh my Goddesses. Oh my Goddesses," she repeated over and over. "Phone. Phone. Phone," she muttered, digging through her purse. Then she remembered. She had left it on her night stand after she got home. Dammit!

Suddenly, the Mercedes veered left. Zelda followed. She stayed far enough behind that the driver couldn't see her, but the downside was that she couldn't see the driver. The Mercedes turned right; Zelda followed.

This patterned continued on and on for awhile. The driver realized they were being followed, and was trying to shake her. Zelda followed expertly. Nothing could throw her off.

And then, the passenger window rolled down and they threw something out behind them.

There was a succession of loud bangs and lights. Zelda screamed as her tires rolled over it, and her foot flattened out over the gas and the steering wheel veered to the side. Zelda screamed, and she drove into the darkness of the woods at high speeds.

"SLOW DOWN! SLOW DOWN!" she screamed at herself, but she couldn't bring her foot from the gas. And then, her entire world shook as the Buick hit a tree. Some smoke rose from the tires, some sparks from the engine... But all was silent. Zelda Royale was out cold.

* * *

A/N: I have a couple announcements. I do, in fact, realize that if Zelda and Sheik gave the police the license plate of the Mercedes, the police could easily track the driver down. I also realize that this is a fan fiction about an alternate universe, where there are beings such as Gorons and Zoras and Deku, and it's a place where (in the game) you can travel from a lake to a vast desert in one day and one night. Also, this is written by a fifteen year old who lives in a podunk town in a place that, according to Ernst Blofeld, "... Well, if we destroy [it] the world may not hear about it for years." I don't take any English classes beyond required to graduate, and I don't plan on becoming an author. I think there should be room for an error or two. :D This is fiction, by the way.

Also, I'm going to Wichita this weekend (YAAAAY). I'm leaving Friday right after school and won't be getting home until Sunday evening, past the time I usually post. So, the next chapter will be posted sometime within the week. Whenever I feel like it. Maybe Thursday. Maybe tomorrow. I dunno. Till then, see you!


	7. Chapter 7: It makes you look manlier

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: Another short chapter. This one is pretty confusing. Just to clear it up, Zelda's passing in and out of consciousness in the beginning. Italics is her dream/vision that she's having, and the normal is obviously what's going on around her. Time is speeding up and slowing down, just showing how out of it she really is. So try to bear with me and read through it a couple times if need be. And I know, I know, I'm waaaay off schedule. But Miss Apple Blossom had a misfortunate occurrence this past Wednesday. The doctor couldn't tell because it was too swollen (I have to go back Tuesday), but she thinks I tore my meniscus (a thingamajigger in my knee) while I was running the dreaded mile in PE. So I was high as a kite Thursday, and Friday I was miserable, and this weekend I was in Wichita being upset. Sorry for being off schedule.

So now, I present to you:

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Seven: I think it makes you look manlier.

_No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear._

_~ Edmund Burke_

_"Hee hee hee!" laughed a high, childish voice._

_A white blanket of fog covered everything. Zelda could hardly breathe. She was wearing a lacy, white dress and her hair was curled. She had a flower behind her ear. She couldn't breathe properly or speak._

_"Zeeeeelda!" laughed a girl, as she ran by. She was dressed similarly to Zelda- lacy, white dress with a flower tucked behind her ear. Zelda wanted very much so to join the girls playing and swirling about in the white mist._

_"Tee hee!" a girl laughed, spinning past Zelda. She had long, raven-black hair with an almost violet sheen to it. She was wearing a white dress with a red flower like Zelda's tucked behind her ear.

* * *

_

"Where in the _hell _could she be?" a male voice asked. A second voice answered, but the voice didn't carry far enough to tell what he or she said.

Zelda was vaguely aware of the voices as she regained consciousness.

"It's been how long?" asked the first male.

"About twenty, thirty minutes," said a second voice. Zelda could tell they were coming closer.

* * *

_Another girl, dressed identically, ran by laughing._

_Two more girls came out. They all wore lacy, white dresses with red flowers behind their ears. The four girls were playing tag. Zelda didn't notice that it was unusual for teenage girls and young women to be so happy about playing a childhood game. She just had the longing to join them, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt a wide gap between their worlds..._

_Another girls walked into the frame. She had short, blonde hair with dark low lights in it. Her eyes were green. She was pretty. She showed no sign of bodily harm. She stopped walking directly in front of her, and smoothly turned to face her. The girl walked closer to Zelda, and Zelda recognized her._

_"Help me, Zelda," Ilia told her. "Get him. You can do it... Don't let me go home with him. Help me."

* * *

_

Why did her head hurt so bad? Zelda's cheek was pressed against the steering wheel, and there were flies buzzing around her. She lifted her right hand and swatted at them. She sat up, and it felt like someone had hit her with a sledgehammer. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Her head slammed back into the steering wheel.

"Hello?" a man called. "Miss Buick Driver? Where are you?"

_Help! _Zelda thought. Oh, this was gonna hurt... She bottled up her giant headache and sat up.

"HEY!" she screamed loudly. "HELP!" Black spots appeared around her line of vision, and she slumped back over in the seat. She could hear the mens' voices, but she was too out of it to answer back. Their voices were coming out very distorted. Zelda struggled to sit up, but she couldn't manage it. She could almost see one of them, now. He was standing far away, and she could barely make out his silhouette. Zelda willed him to please come help her. Then he spoke.

* * *

_As Zelda watched, Ilia started to change. Her hair became messy and undone. The flower became brown and withered. Mascara ran in streaks down her face, reminding Zelda of a prisoner behind bars. Long scratches appeared up and down her arms, and the number five appeared on the stomach of her dress. The dress became black and very torn. She was crying. In the background, the other girls were undergoing similar changes._

_"It's too late for me, Zelda," Ilia said, tears running down her face. "I'm dead now. You didn't help me in time."_

I'm sorry! _Zelda wanted to scream._

_"Sorry doesn't cover it," Ilia said. "It's too late for me... But he won't stop. He'll never stop. He has to _be _stopped. Help us, Zelda. Stop him. Kill him."_

_"Kill him," the other girls said, simultaneously walking up to Zelda and Ilia._

_"You can't help us come back," Ilia said, "but you can help yourself. You're next. Look at yourself."

* * *

_

"Do you have the knife?" he asked. "She's close."

"Yes," said his companion. "What number is this?"

"Uhm, the Berardi girl made five." The man had a deep, husky voice.

"I'm not really in the mood to kill," said one of the men. "Not so soon, anyway. The cops might get suspicious..." The other man merely laughed.

"Oh, Miss Royale, where are you?" he said in a singsong voice. Zelda closed her eyes and let the pain of her headache overtake her.

* * *

_Zelda looked down. Her dress was black and lacy, just like the other girls'. She touched her face- her mascara was streaked. She pulled the flower from behind her ear. It was dying.

* * *

_

"ZELDA!" shouted Liam. Zelda started waking up. "Zelda, where are you?!"

Zelda was too afraid to shout back. It could be the men...

She heard men shouting her name.

_No, no, no, no,_ she thought repeatedly. _Stay away, stay away, stay away..._

"ZELDA!" Sheik shouted.

_Sheik, _Zelda thought. _No. NO! Don't get Sheik! STAY AWAY!_

"Zelda!" Sheik said. Zelda heard running footsteps. "_Din! _Zelda, you okay? Zelda?"

Her car door opened, and then a rush happened.

"SHE'S OVER HERE!" Sheik shouted. "Zel, Zelda," he repeated her name over and over. "Get up, please, get up!" When she didn't move, he undid her seat belt. "Come on, please, please, please," he said, pulling her out of the driver's seat and into his lap. He sat down by the totaled car and stroked her hair. "Zelda!"

"Sheik, ow," Zelda said so quietly he almost missed it. Her eyes were shut, and her head was tucked against his chest.

"Zelda!" yelled Liam, running over and skidding next to Sheik and Zelda. He slipped and fell into the Buick. "Ouch! Damn. Zelda!"

"Doomie..." she said softly. Then a vision of a large, barrel-chested man with a kitchen knife and a slim, tall companion came to mind. Zelda couldn't see their faces, only their retreating backs. Ilia's face came next, and Zelda began wildly screaming and flailing around in Sheik's arms. "GET AWAY! THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE!"

"DOCTOR!" shouted Liam.

"Shh, shh," Sheik said, stroking her hair. "No one's here. Just us. There are some cops nearby..." Zelda continued screaming, and then the tears came. A large flock of people suddenly appeared, and she could see flashing lights and hear some sirens. Then, she heard Sheik grunt in pain.

"Z, hold still," Liam said. Zelda felt hands on her, but she could only see the men from earlier multiplied around her, and Ilia and the other girls' crying faces in the background. As one of the EMTs administered a tranquilizer, Zelda's screams quieted and the five on Iila's stomach burned the brightest of all.

* * *

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

The incessant ticking was all that reached Zelda's ears.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

_Huuuuuh, uhhhh. Huuuuuh, uhhhhh._

She could hear someone's deep breathing.

_Tick._

_Huuuuuh..._

_Tick._

_Uhhhhhhh...._

_Tick._

_Huuuuuh..._

_Tick._

_Uhhhhhhh..._

Zelda opened her eyes. It was very dark. The blinds were pulled, but there was no light peeking around the edges anyway. It was nighttime. Zelda was in a foreign area. She was lying in a white bed that wasn't very comfortable, and the white sheet and blue blanket were both scratchy. Zelda saw a TV, and a couch. Liam was slumped over on the couch. The heavy breathing was coming from him. Zelda was very confused, but she decided she would get answers later. There was a clock hanging above her night stand. It was three fifty six AM. Zelda stared at it, and then looked back at Liam. She felt her eyelids begin to droop, and then she fell asleep.

* * *

"... fine," said Liam. "We're just waiting for her to wake up. The doctors say we can checkout at any time."

"That's good," said another male voice. There was a short pause. "Did anyone call Link?"

_Link?!_ Zelda's heart began racing, and she struggled to try to open her eyes.

"Yeah," said Liam darkly. "He's not very happy. He wanted to fly down here, but I talked him out of it. Doc says she'll be fine, she just needs to rest. He doesn't need to skip class just to make sure she's sleeping. He worked so hard to get it, it'd be a shame for his grades to drop so early in the semester because he misses school."

"Yeah," agreed the other voice. Zelda almost, _almost,_ detected a cheery note to it. Which could only mean it was Sheik. Zelda opened her eyes. It took the two, who were immersed in a football game, to realized she had woken up.

"Hey," said Liam softly, walking over to her. "How do you feel?"

"Like I got hit by a frickin' truck," Zelda said. "My head is pounding."

"Yeah, that should go-"

"I'm dizzy."

"Doc said-"

"I feel like I'm about to puke."

"If that's the case, aim for the trash can, not me," Sheik joked, ducking out of the way. Zelda stuck her tongue out at him, and then was overcome by surprise.

"What in Din's name happened to you?" she asked. Sheik had white gauze taped over his nose. "You look ridiculous."

"You hurt Sheik worse than the tree hurt you," Liam teased. "You have a concussion, and you almost broke Sheik's nose."

"They just freed me," Sheik said, reaching for the gauze.

"Your mom is gonna freak," Liam warned.

"Let her," Sheik muttered, tearing the gauze off. His nose was crusty with blood, and there was a cut on it. He looked in the mirror on the wall by the miniature whiteboard that the nurses used to write notes and food restrictions. "Not too shabby," he said, nodding in satisfaction.

"I think it makes you look manlier," Zelda said. The other two laughed, and then the Baldwins came in. Mrs. Baldwin helped Zelda change back into her clothing Liam had brought from home, and then the two families left the hospital.

* * *

Zelda stared at the number on her phone. It was so familiar. So many times had it been dialed, so many times had it appeared on the screen and Zelda's heart had jumped... But this time, she wasn't so sure. Sighing, she hit the green button. The phone began to ring.

Zelda was wearing a pair of Soffe shorts and a loose, white shirt. She was lying in her own bed, at home. It was later that night, and Liam was in the living room. Zelda had a feeling he'd be staying out there all night, in case she needed him. She smiled at her brother's thoughtfulness.

"Hello?" Link's deep voice answered.

"Hi," Zelda said weakly. There was a momentary silence.

"_Zelda,_" Link said, his voice as weak as hers. Her face bunched up, and a tear slid down her cheek.

"I miss you so much," she said, her voice cracking.

"_Zelda,_" he moaned again. In the background was silence. Zelda wondered where he was. A coffee shop, maybe? That seemed very Link-like. He enjoyed coffee very much, and he liked to go there when he was overwhelmed.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you too," Link told her. "How are you? What happened? You'd better tell me _everything._" A slight, affectionate growl was added on the "everything". Zelda smiled. She had been afraid that he would yell at her for being so stupid. She should have known better. As she told him the same story she had told Sheik and Liam, he reacted similarly. A few deep, heavy breaths, and then: "We'll discuss _that _when you're feeling better. How do you feel now?"

"Dizzy. Nauseous. My stomach hurts. Headache. I don't have very good balance," Zelda said. "The doctor told me to sleep as much as I could, which I've been doing all day, which is why I didn't call sooner."

"I figured. Doomie texted me and told me you were fine, you were just sleeping a lot. Just do exactly what the doctor says, Z, don't overdo it."

"He says the concussion I have isn't very serious. I should be better by tomorrow or in a few days."

"Good," Link said. "He said that you must have been touched by Din, because if that really was the killer, you weren't very far from the road. And the Buick's totalled, but you just got a minor concussion."

"Yeah," Zelda said thankfully. A soft silence followed.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Coffee shop. It's the same one as home, but it's not as good. You know what they say, home sweet home."

"Yeah," Zelda said. Another silence followed, and she felt sleep pricking at the corners of her consciousness.

"Hey, I've been thinking," Link said. "About open relationships."

"What?" Zelda said, whatever glimpse of sleep she'd had disappearing. Fire filled her insides.

"You know. Where we date other people."

"You had _better_ not be suggesting that is what _we_ do."

"I'm not, I'm not!" Link said, backtracking. "That's not-"

"Good," Zelda said. A silence followed.

"Get some sleep," Link said abruptly. "Good night."

"Good night," Zelda said, hanging up. As soon as she did so, she felt extreme frustration. He probably really wasn't suggesting they date other people. He was probably clearing the air because he felt insecure about Sheik. Zelda bit back tears of frustration, and squeezed her eyes shut. She succumbed to the desire to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8: Life as a Ninja

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: Caution: This chapter contains teen drinking!!! If this will offend you, skip the bottom half!!! I have never been to a party, nor have I taken more than a sip of beer or anything, so I'm mostly going off of movies and other stuff I've read. This is a freakin' long chapter- I wanted to post it as one. If you want to, read it in sections. If I were you, I would just get a snack, pour a soda, wrap up in a blanket (I don't know about where you are, but it's frickin' cold here!!) and sit tight.

As usual, I have a stellar excuse for being spectacularly late. I got sick. Blech. And all of my teachers (even the ones who don't assign homework at all) decided to assign piles of homework every night this week, preventing me from updating throughout the week. By the time the homework load subsided, it was Thursday and I decided I would go ahead and post this with the next chapter. Chapter Nine will be posted shortly. :)

In the beginning, when Malon is talking about Mr. Lakeside, it's pretty much describing one of the teachers at my high school. It's really sad, actually. He couldn't draw numbers correctly on the board anymore, and he forgot how to do things. He had a stroke a month or two ago, and they brought a new teacher in. What's going on with him really reminds me of what my grandma went through. Here's to you, Mr. C.

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Eight: Life as a Ninja

_The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which sets even a wise man  
to singing and to laughing gently and rouses him up to dance  
and brings forth words which were better unspoken._

_~ Homer_

It was Monday, August twenty-fourth. Malon Ackerman was sitting in seventh hour Physics, taught by Mr. Luke Lakeside. He was eccentric. Even though fashion in Hyrule had evolved since the old ages, he still wore thick, blue robes and a blue hat. He wore huge glasses that made it appear as if his eyes were bugging out of his head. He had a hunch in his back, and he spoke very softly and stuttered. Rumor was it that Mr. Lakeside was losing it, and was going to be retiring soon. He had once been a great teacher, one of the greatest in Hyrule. Malon personally thought that was no excuse. It didn't really matter how great he had been- the fact was that he couldn't teach very well _now._ Malon was sympathetic and all, but it wasn't fair that the students' grades were suffering. At the same time, Malon remembered when her grandpa had died. She remembered that phase that Mr. Lakeside was going through now, and it made her very sad. It was a difficult position- on one hand, totally knowing what his family was going through, and on the other hand wanting a decent education. She sighed and shifted her bags around.

"So I hear Miss Preppy got attacked by the killer," said a voice from behind Malon. She jumped up and yelped softly, and turned. Sienna Turner, the green-haired bratty girl with a multitude of nose rings and lip studs, was smirking in the seat behind her. Malon made a face.

"What would give you that idea?" she said coolly.

"So it's true?" said Sienna.

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to," Sienna said. She annoyingly smirked again, and then walked away back to her usual corner of the room. Malon rolled her eyes and checked the clock. This class was going by excruciatingly slow. Malon knew it was probably because Fado and Lulu, the only other two girls that were normal, had catty fights with each other and were aggravating. The boys, Kafei, th-weird-kid-that-no-one-knew-anything-about-but-spent-a-lot-of-time-in-the-bathroom, Darmani, and Evan didn't keep very good company. Malon missed her best friends, Zelda Royale and Sheik Baldwin.

Zelda had been in some sort of accident last night. Liam had called Malon that morning and explained everything. He had told her that Zelda claimed to have been on the trail of the killer, and even heard them while crashed in the woods, but Liam wasn't sure if that was legit or not. Zelda seemed pretty out of it. Zelda had stayed home from school today, and rumors were starting. Zelda Royale rarely missed school- she'd had the Perfect Attendance Award throughout her high school career. When Zelda had not showed up to first hour, Ganondorf, Vaati, and Agahnim had started a rumor she'd been gutted by the killer. This irritated Malon beyond belief- especially because Liam had told her not to talk about it, so Malon couldn't straighten the rumor out.

Sheik had been the one to find Zelda, Liam had told her. Zelda had been incredibly out of it, and hallucinating, and screaming. She had punched Sheik pretty hard, and they both had been in the hospital all night and had just come home this morning. Liam had been fairly sure Mrs. Baldwin would keep Sheik at home today, and he had been correct. It had been a sluggish day for Malon. The classroom phone rang. Mr. Lakeside picked it up.

"Hello? Hello?" he said. The phone continued to ring. He stared at it, and tried talking into it again. "Helloooo? Hello?" Evan and Darmani began snickering. Mr. Lakeside was holding the phone upside down. "What is wrong with this blasted contraption?" he asked it, staring at it.

"Ah, Mr. Lakeside?" Malon said softly, extending her pinky and thumb like a phone and flipping it upside down. A light bulb went off in Mr. Lakeside's head.

"Oh!" Mr. Lakeside said, turning the phone the right way and hitting the talk button. "Hello?"

Malon glanced at the clock again as Lulu and Fado's voices rose in an argument about a haircut. Two fifty eight. Almost time to go...

Malon began packing her stuff away, and then she felt a pair of eyes boring into the back of her skull. She brushed her red hair back and looked across the room. Sienna was glaring at her with a frigid intensity. Irritated, Malon shoved her stuff in her bag and turned to the front of the room stubbornly. Then, she stood up and stalked over to Sienna.

"What is your _problem_?" she asked loudly. The other kids didn't care, and after he had hung up, Mr. Lakeside had become deeply immersed in a crossword puzzle.

"My problem?" asked Sienna coolly.

"Why are you staring at me? Why do you care about Zelda? You hate Zelda," Malon said. Sienna shook her head.

"I don't know. I guess I just happened to be looking that way."

"Uh huh. A likely excuse."

"Listen, carrot top," Sienna said, her voice lowering. "I want to know what's going on with these murders, and if that means talking to Miss Priss, then I may be game."

"Are you kidding me?" Malon said.

"Don't get so heated. Your face is kind of looking like a tomato."

Before Malon could fire back, the bell rang. Sienna leapt out of her chair, scathingly looked at Malon, and exited the room. Steamed, Malon began to follow.

"Take care, young ones!" Mr. Lakeside called out.

"You too," Malon muttered. After a quick trip to her locker, she walked outside of school. As soon as she was out the doors, she pulled her pink Razr phone and dialed a number. She walked to her silver 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse and opened her back door. She threw her bags and the extra books inside, and walked around to the driver seat.

"Hello?" Zelda said.

"Hey." Malon fished around in her purse for her keys.

"What's up?" Zelda said tiredly.

"Not much," Malon said, pulling her keys out and starting the car. "Hold on a sec, I'm backing up... Okay, I'm good. Now start talking."

* * *

"_Damn_!" Malon said, as she pulled into the coffee shop that she and Zelda enjoyed going to. It was kind of pricey, but totally worth it.

"Yeah," Zelda said softly.

"You sound tired."

"A little."

"You sound like you need coffee."

"Ohh, that sounds good."

"Awesome! I'll be over in a bit!"

"Oh, Mal, no!" Malon hung up at Zelda's protest and put her phone back in her pocket. She parked her car and walked into the restaurant. She ordered two mocha frappuccinos, and two cinnamon rolls. After gasping at the price, she paid and exited the shop. As she drove to Zelda's house, she contemplated what Zelda had told her about the wreck and the events leading up to it.

Malon was getting kind of antsy about the murders. The police were still very tight-lipped on it. Ilia's death had hit all over. Every teacher but Mr. Lakeside had delivered a small speech about it, and the whole school was buzzing about it. The fact that Zelda and Sheik were gone on mysterious circumstances was also a topic of interest. Malon had heard bits of news here and there about Ilia, but she doubted any of them were true. She thought about her day for another ten minutes, and then she pulled into Zelda's house. She grabbed the bag of cinnamon rolls and the two coffees, walked to the front door, and knocked.

"Come in!" Zelda's voice shouted.

"I can't!" Malon said. She had the bag in one hand and the coffees in the other. A few moments later, the door opened. "Hey, Zel!" Malon said, smiling brightly. She walked into the living room and sat on the couch, and she was quickly followed by Zelda. She wasn't wearing makeup, and her hair wasn't done. She was wearing sweats and an old tee shirt. She had a bandage around her head.

"Mal, you are the best," Zelda said as Malon handed her a coffee and cinnamon roll.

"I know," Malon said, smiling and sitting next to the blonde.

"Oh, my Goddesses," Zelda said, biting into her gooey, sugary, cinnamon roll. "This is heaven in the form of rolled up, gooey, sugary, cinnamon-ness."

"You're so weird," Malon said, sipping her coffee.

"Hey!" Liam yelled from the kitchen. "Hi!"

"Hi, Doomie!" Malon yelled back, waving brightly. Liam disappeared back into the kitchen. "So seriously, how do you feel?"

"Eh," Zelda said. "Pretty normal. I'm going to school tomorrow. I could have handled it today. I've got a little bit of a headache, but it looks worse than it feels." An awkward silence settled, and Malon noticed the TV was on a sports channel. Zelda hated sports.

"Was Sheik here?" she asked.

"Yeah," Zelda said shortly. "He just left a little bit ago."

Malon nodded grimly, and sipped her coffee. Sheik and Zelda got along great, but sometimes, they would fight over stupid things, like brothers and sisters. But one of them would always go back to the other, so it never was really a problem.

"Sheik's mad because I just told him I want to look for Da Bomb," Zelda said. Malon hesitated.

"Da Bomb isn't ringing any bells. That sounds like a ghetto guy's name."

"No, that's the license plate I saw on the Mercedes that picked Ilia up." Malon turned and stared at Zelda, who fidgeted. "You know? Da Bomb?"

"You realize how stupid that sounds, right?"

"You mean stupid that I'm referring to a potential killer as Da Bomb?"

"Well, that, and stupid that you want to go look for aforementioned potential killer."

"Oh, lighten up," Zelda said irritably. "You sound like Sheik. Who sounds like Doomie."

"Did you tell this to Doomie?"

"Of course not! That's just how he _would _sound," Zelda explained. Malon inhaled deeply. "What? You think it's a bad idea?"

"That is the _stupidest _thing I have heard all day, and mind you, there's some pretty stupid theories as to what really happened to Ilia."

"Like what?"

"It doesn't matter. And why can't you just tell the police all this and have them search for it?"

"I did. They think I imagined that I saw them last night. They don't believe me," Zelda said, her blue eyes dropping towards the floor slightly, and her bottom lip puckering out. A second later, she popped back up and turned to face Malon. She was sitting on her knees, with her coffee in one hand and the last bite of cinnamon goodness in the other. She looked at her. "Do you believe me?"

"Don't pull that crap, Zelda," Malon said indignantly. "I'm not Sheik or Link. You can't bully me into doing what you want."

"Oh fine, I won't bully you," Zelda said, turning back to the TV. She finished her cinnamon roll thoughtfully. "But you can't deny that the person who picked Ilia up really did have the license plate "Da Bomb". Sheik and Mido saw it too."

"Did you three tell the cops that?"

"Yes."

"Are they looking?"

Zelda sighed. "They're not letting us know anything. The officer told me that they 'were looking into it'."

"Maybe they did find him," Malon said. "Maybe he has an alibi or something, so they can't keep him. And they might be able to question him about the wreck, but I don't know."

"My memory's fuzzy from before the crash," Zelda said sheepishly. "And after, the dream I had dominates over everything."

"Yeah," Malon said uncomfortably. Hearing the dream once was enough to creep her out. Time to change the subject. "Sienna asked about you today."

"She did? What'd she want?"

Damn, that wasn't really much of a subject change. "Just wanted to know where you were. It was weird. You want to know what they're saying about Ilia and you and Sheik?"

"Yeah!"

"Well, there's a rumor flying around that you and Sheik are having a day to the two of yourselves filled with passionate lovemaking."

"..."

"ZELDA!"

"What?!" Zelda said, her cheeks heating up. "No! I was just... thinking."

"About WHAT?!" Malon said, her eyes bright with excitement. "Are you and Link still-?"

"Yes!" Zelda said. "I was just... never mind."

"Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me."

"No."

"Tell me!"

"I was thinking about how hot Sheik is without a shirt, okay?!" Zelda said, frustrated.

"Zelda Royale!" Malon said. "You already have a guy as hot as Link, and you're thinking about Sheik!"

"No!" Zelda said. "Ugh, fine. The image just, um, popped when you said that. Can we talk about some other theories?"

"Hmm," Malon said. "Well, Vaati swore that his cousin, who works with the police, told him Ilia was actually working with the Mafia and was killed by some other gang."

"Are you kidding?" Zelda said, her pretty face breaking out in a smile.

"No," Malon laughed, taking another drink. "Another kid swore she was part of a cult and was killed in some kind of hazing gone wrong. It involved chickens. Lots of chickens."

"What?"

"I know, right?" Malon and Zelda laughed together. The two talked for awhile longer, and then Liam announced the spaghetti was done. Malon had dinner with the Royales, and then went home. She had trouble sleeping that night. What Zelda had said about finding Da Bomb unnerved her... A lot. And the part that scared her was that she knew that Zelda had enough ambition- or stupidity- to follow through, and try to find him. Malon rolled back and forth a few times, and then finally fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

It was now Tuesday, August twenty fifth. Zelda had got home from school a little bit ago, and was incredibly bored. She was lying in bed, not really doing anything. No homework. Nothing on TV. Not even cross country practice. Sheik had errands to do in town, Malon was working on her Terminian II homework (She had responded to Zelda's text about if they could go do something tonight with, "_sumimasen, tomodachi_". Sorry, friend.), and even Liam was at work. Liam did a lot of odd jobs that no one liked to do. Zelda had even tried to call Link- they'd talked for a little, but then he had had to go write a major essay for English. Link wanted to be an oncologist. It was required at Clock Town University, however, to be enrolled in at least one English class. Zelda sighed and rolled over in bed.

At about nine thirty, she got the text. By then, Liam was home, but he was tired and had collapsed in front of the TV. Zelda was bored out of her mind. Sheik didn't seem very sociable, and Malon wouldn't answer her texts. And then, out of nowhere, one came.

_Rents outta twn. Prty 2nite!_

It was from Peach, the preppy girl in a few of Zelda's classes. Peach dressed like Zelda to the point where it was kind of odd. She wore pink a lot, and lots of skirts. Her blonde hair was wavy, and her eyes were very, very blue. She acted inane and enjoyed flirting with boys. However, she was stinking rich. She lived several miles away from Zelda, in the middle of nowhere. Her parents owned a huge, old-fashioned house that had one turret and was made of gray bricks. A wrought iron fence surrounded the property. Peach drove an expensive, hot pink convertible. Peach threw good parties. _Awesome _parties. Although it was unusual to be having one on a Tuesday. But, Ilia and Peach had been friends. Maybe Peach was having issues coping with Ilia's death and thought a party would help it? Whatever the reason, Zelda frowned and shut her phone. She set it on her bedside and plugged her MP3 into her ears.

She remembered her partying days. That's where she had made a lot of her friends. Not all- she had known Sheik and Malon since they were little. Ruto and Mikau had been at a party freshman year. Zelda had met Fox and Saria in school. She wasn't sure if either of them had been at a party before.

"_Psst!_"

"Ah!" Zelda jumped, her heart racing. Someone was pounding on her window, and had made a noise at her. She turned and looked: Sheik. Rolling her eyes, she took her MP3 out and opened the window. "What?" she asked, annoyed. "You scared the crap out of me!"

"Did you get the text from Peach?" Sheik asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you want to go?"

"Yeah, but Doomie and Link would freak."

"Yeah, yeah," Sheik said, "but listen. It's been a rough week. Ilia died. You got in a wreck. You almost broke my nose."

"I told you sorry!"

"Yeah, yeah," he repeated, leaning in her window and laying his arms across the frame. "You know, this is kind of uncomfortable. Can I come in?"

Zelda sighed. "Fine. It's a big jump- will you be able to-? Okay," she said as Sheik practically flew over the window and landed in her room. He landed in a crouched position, with one hand on the floor and the other in front of him. He looked around. Zelda giggled. "Doomie will be mad if he finds you in here."

"I know!" he whispered, looking around. "Shut the light off!"

"Uh, no thanks," Zelda said, sitting on her bed.

"Fine," Sheik said, resigning and sitting down by her. "So, do you want to go with me tonight?" There was an awkward pause. "You know, as friends. Who most certainly don't want to get drunk. Because Coach Darunia wouldn't take kindly to that. He'd even kick off his favorite, Miss Royale."

"Sheik, it's Tuesday. I don't want to have a hangover tomorrow."

"We don't have to drink!"

"Go to a party but not drink?" Zelda said, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah. Link would kill me, anyway. He doesn't like partying."

"Neither does he like anything else beautiful, either. Like cars."

"He loves cars."

"He also likes... Crap."

"Hah!" Zelda said. The two heard a car, and they listened through the open window. The heard a door open, and then shut. "Someone's here!" Zelda hissed. Without missing a beat, Sheik dropped from the bed. "What are you-?!" He rolled over and ninja-crawled across the room. Zelda fell back in bed, clapping a hand over her mouth at the serious expression on his face as he threw a pair of jeans out of his way and flattened himself on the wall by the closet.

"Zelda!"

"What?" Zelda said, looking at the window. Her visitor had arrived in the form of Malon.

"Did you get Peach's text?" she asked, her eyes animated and excited.

"Yeah," Zelda said.

"Do you want to go?"

"Sure, why not," she sighed. "Give me a second."

"Yup," Malon said. "The car's between you and Sheik's houses! You can come too, Sheik. By the way, you really suck at hiding. Let's hope if you ever absolutely have to, you'll remember not to hide behind things that are half your size."

"Damn," he said, coming out into plain view. Malon laughed, and bounded off into the darkness. Zelda could faintly hear a pop song playing.

"Why were you hiding?" she asked him, hunting around for a hairbrush and her makeup kit.

"Because life is more fun when you're a ninja," he answered. Without further explanation, he dove out the window again. Zelda stifled a laugh and watched him bound off into the darkness behind Malon.

* * *

An hour later, Zelda, Malon, Sheik, Ruto, Saria, Fox, and Mikau were seated in Malon's mom's van. Zelda had made sure that Liam was safely asleep, and then slipped out her bedroom window and into the night. She was wearing a pair of black flip flops, a jean miniskirt, and a brown tank top with a brown-and-teal shirt over it. It was shiny. Her hair was partially pulled back, and she was wearing a chunky black bracelet. Malon, Saria, and Ruto were dressed similarly. The boys were all wearing jeans and nice shirts. Saria and Fox looked slightly nervous. This was their first party. What made it even more intimidating was that Peach was throwing it. Peach was the Princess of Hyrule High.

"WOO!" Zelda and company cheered as Malon pulled into the gate leading to Peach's house.

"Wow. It's packed," Malon said, cruising for a parking spot. "Aw, man!" she said.

"What?" Sheik said.

"We're parked behind Ganondorf," Malon said.

"Ugh," Saria said. "Well, at least there are a lot of other people here. We don't _have _to talk to him."

"True," Malon said. "Well, let's go." She was a little less excited than before. She had been elected the designated driver by the rest of them. Their logic was that it was Fox and Saria's first party, so they needed the full experience. It also was Zelda's first party in quite a while, so she was out. Mikau had weasled his way out by bringing up the several tickets he had gotten in the past few months, and no one trusted Ruto's driving, so it was between Malon and Sheik. They had decided that Sheik wasn't responsible enough to be trusted to avoid the beer, so Malon reluctantly was the sober one for tonight.

"Well, would you trust anyone else with your mom's car?" Zelda had said, trying to soothe her.

"True," Malon had said. Now, after saying the same thing, she was exiting the car. The others followed suit, and casually walked up the beautiful driveway and into Peach's mansion.

"Heyyy!" crooned several guys as the group walked in. "Baldwin!" Kafei slurred, stumbling over to them. He was already incredibly drunk. "Han't seen you around!"

"Nope!" Sheik said, his face lighting up. "Where'd you get that?"

"Kitchen," Kafei said, bounding off in the other direction, screaming, "Anju!"

"All right!" Sheik said, walking to the kitchen. Everyone followed. "One for you... And one for you..." Sheik said, pouring beer into cups and handing them to Zelda, Ruto, and Mikau. Saria and Fox looked on tentatively. "You two have to get your own. The first is momentous. You will remember it for the rest of your life."

"You read too much into it, Sheik," Ruto said, taking a drink of her cup, and walking in the direction of where the music was pounding. Zelda took a drink of her own, laughed, and headed out to the dance floor.

* * *

"Bahahaha!" Zelda laughed, running up the stairs of Peach's house. Or was it Ilia's? She really couldn't remember. She just remembered the dancing. And the beer. Looooots of dancing and beer. Ha ha...

"Where you going?" yelled Sheik, following.

"I dunno," Zelda said. "Somewhere. Hey. Gimme a hug!"

"Why?" Sheik asked, wavering on the spot while Zelda bear-hugged him.

"You look handsome tonight," Zelda said. She started laughing, and started running up the stairs again. Sheik touched her arm.

"We're not supposed to go up there."

"I wanna know what's up there!" Zelda said.

"C'mon," Sheik said, walking the other way. Zelda followed along obediently, as he led her out into the living room where the others were.

"Sheik," Zelda said. "Where are we?"

"Ahh, Peach's house," he told her. "Whaddya mean?"

"Thought we were at Ilia's," Zelda said. "Again."

"Again? I've never been to Ilia's," Sheik said, taking Zelda's hand and walking out into the kitchen.

"I have," Zelda said brightly. "Freshman year. That's where I had sex the first time, you know."

"No, I didn't know," said Sheik, his vision clearing a little bit, and anger poking at his throat.

"Yuuuup," Zelda said. "You'll never guess with who."

"Z, you don't want me to know."

"I don't really care."

"That's 'cause you're drunk," Sheik said.

"Tipsy," Zelda corrected, following with a huge laugh. She took another drink of her cup.

"I think you're done for tonight," Sheik said, reaching for it.

"No!" Zelda laughed, pulling away. Sheik shrugged, and the pair headed to the dance floor. It was a pop song playing. Most of the kids were still partying heavily, happy and drunk. It seemed like half the school was at this party. The lights were off, but the music was coming from a stereo or something. Somewhere, Zelda saw Mikau and Ruto dancing with each other. She heard a scream and turned and looked. The crowd was picking Saria up. Zelda laughed and turned back to Sheik.

"It looks like someone's found their zone," said a perfectly sober Vaati, pushing his way up to Zelda and Sheik.

"You know, I don't know why we're not friends, Vaati," Zelda said, turning to him. "You're smart. You're nice. I don't know why I don't like you."

"Neither do I, babe," Vaati said smoothly.

"Woo hoo, party with the drunken blonde!" a very intoxicated Ganondorf said, making his way over to Vaati, Zelda, and Sheik.

"Okay, okay, back off," Sheik said, taking Zelda's hand and pulling the other way.

"Shut up, queer boy," Ganondorf said, shoving on Sheik's chest. Sheik punched him in the face, and the crowd "Ooh"'d. Ganondorf caught Sheik's hand and snapped it backward. There was a pop.

"Hey, hey!" Zelda said, bobbing over and putting her hands on theirs and trying to separate them.

"You watch it," Ganondorf said, his eyes seeming to pop out of his head. "I'll ice you like I iced Ilia Berardi."

"Come on now, break it up," a crabby Malon said, storming over. "I'm tired, and you're all drunk, and I would like to go home because we _do _have school in the morning."

"Boo!" shouted several kids, throwing their cups at them. Malon rolled her eyes and grabbed Sheik's and Zelda's hands. She walked in the opposite direction.

"Now where is Saria, I saw her crowd-surfing a bit ago..." Malon mused, walking Sheik and Zelda to the hallway leading outside and plopping them down. "Stay put."

"Ahhkay," Zelda said, watching Malon disappear. "Sheik, you ever thought that Mama and Dad were right?"

"Bout what?" Sheik said, his eyelids dropping.

"Bout you and me," Zelda said. "That we were meant to be together."

"Your parents would like Link," Sheik said.

"They like you better."

"Yeah," Sheik said, smiling to himself. "I remember the cookies. I like cookies. You got any cookies?"

"How many have you had, Sheik?" Zelda asked.

"Cookies? None. I want cookies. You're too drunk to understand me."

"No- ugh."

Meanwhile, Malon was searching for her drunken comrades. She passed through the sea of teenagers, and sidestepped a vomit puddle. Ew. She was crabby and tired and she wanted to sleep.

"Saria!" Malon said, seeing her short friend. "Aww, _man..._" Saria was hunched over a potted plant, puking into it. Malon sighed. "May as well take the plant with us..." She looked around for Peach, and didn't see her. Peach was mean, and she wouldn't know who took the plant anyway. She dumped it over, and handed it to Saria. "Go out to the hallway. Zelda and Sheik are there. We're leaving."

"Malon. Malon. Mal. Mal-O. Big O."

"What?"

"I don't like beer any- _gleh!_"

"I don't think it likes you either," Malon said, looking at Fox, who was watching Saria grimly. He didn't look so good, either. "You drunk?"

"No," Fox said. "Well, a little tipsy. Not drunk. I just don't like the smell."

"Please take her to the hallway. And please, for the love of Din, don't let her puke in my mom's car. I'll be dead. Like, dead dead."

"Okay. Thanks for being the responsible one tonight," Fox said, leading Saria to the hallway, with the bucket.

"Hey! Fox!" Malon yelled.

"Yeah?"

"You seen Mikau or Ruto?"

"Uhh, they were in the kitchen, last I was aware of."

"Okay. Thanks."

Malon combed the house until she heard Ruto's distinctive cackle, and then saw a flash of blonde hair with blue tips. She was lip locked with a guy. Uh oh...

"Ruto!" Malon yelled, parting through the crowd. She saw Ruto disappear through a door. _Not while I'm playing the responsible one, _Malon thought, walking to the door and opening it. "Ruto! Mikau! Come on, you're acting like animals!"

"Shut up, Mal!"

"Yeah, yeah. We have school tomorrow. If you still want to do this then, you can then," Malon said, peeling Mikau and Ruto apart and leading them out the door.

"But I love him!"

"I love her!"

"How sweet. It can wait," Malon said. "Trust me. You'll both regret it in the morning."

"You're a bitch, Mal," Ruto said.

"Yeah, yeah," Malon said again, not trusting her judgement at the moment. She went out to the hallway, where Zelda, Sheik, Fox, and Saria were. "Let's go."

* * *

It was a long ride home. It didn't help that Saria vomited the whole way home. Other than that, it was pretty quiet. Saria sat in the back seat, throwing up into the pot. Ruto sat in the seat opposite her, leaning against the window with her eyes shut. Sheik, Zelda, and Fox were in the middle row. Zelda's head was on Sheik's shoulder, and the pair were fast asleep. Fox was sleeping, as well. All of them were asleep except for Saria, Mikau, and Malon. While Saria was in the back seat preoccupied and Malon driving, Mikau stared out the window.

"Who do you think did it?" Mikau asked her.

"Did what?" Malon said, her voice quiet.

"Killed her," Mikau answered softly. "I wonder who killed Ilia." Tentatively, Malon stole a glance at him. The moonlight spilled down through the glass and was hitting his face in an eerie way.

"Not sure," Malon said, turning back to the road.

"Could you kill a person, Malon?" Mikau said.

"Mikau, you sound crazy."

"I think I could," he said thoughtfully. "It wouldn't take much. The pull of a trigger, the tightening of hands around a throat..."

"Mikau, stop," Malon said, cold chills going up and down her spine.

"Just sayin'," Mikau said. "It wouldn't take much."

"Yeah," Malon said, turning the radio on softly. They were quiet the rest of the ride home.

* * *

"Ma-mornin', Doomie!" Zelda crooned, walking in through the front door.

"Z, no- oh, forget it," Malon said, hearing Saria throw up in the background. "See you tomorrow."

"Doooooooooooomie! Doomie, Doomie, Doomie!" Zelda cried, skipping through the house. Once Malon had woken her up, she had felt filled with energy and excitement.

"Zelda? What's up?" Liam said, emerging from his room and rubbing his eyes.

"Just wanted to tell you good morning!" Zelda said, giving him a big, wet kiss on his cheek.

"Ew, Zelda!" Liam said, jumping away. He stiffened. "Why do you smell like beer?"

"Because I'm as drunk as a bluebird!"

"Drunk as a bluebird?" Liam sighed. "Come on, let's get you to bed..."

"Doomie," Zelda said as Liam watched her crawl into bed. "Am I in trouble?" Liam only laughed, and shut the door. Zelda was asleep almost instantly.

* * *

"Ma-mornin', Zelda!" Liam crooned, walking into her bedroom door. Zelda rolled over and pulled a pillow over her head.

"Uhnnn...."

"Zelda, Zelda, Zelda!"

"Go 'way...."

"But, Z, it's time for school!" Doomie said, walking over to her and ripping the covers off. He touched her bare neck.

"GAH!" Zelda yelled, leaping up. His hand was cold. And her neck was warm. And she suddenly felt like throwing up... "Give me a second," she said, queasy.

"Zelda, I need help!"

"With what?" Zelda moaned. Why was he yelling so loudly? Or did it just seem like he was loud, because she was hung over? Oh Goddesses, she hoped he hadn't picked up on that... Suddenly, there was a loud blaring in her year.

"GAH!" she shrieked again, dropping to the floor. "What the HELL-"

"An air horn!" Liam said brightly. "You like?"

Zelda sent him a scathing look. "Hell, you know, don't you?"

"Know what?" Liam asked innocently. "That you were out partying until the wee hours of the morning, and now you have a have a horrible hangover? I have my suspicions."

"Can I sleep in? Go to school late?"

"Absolutely not." Liam walked back to the kitchen nonchalantly.

"Pleeease?" Zelda begged, following him.

"You made your choice," Liam said, walking into the kitchen. "I'm not totally mean, though. I'm making French toast."

"Doomie, you suck and you're amazingly awesome at the same time," Zelda said.

"You'd want to go to school anyway," Liam called from the kitchen.

"Why?" Zelda asked, walking back to her room.

"They're having a memorial service for Ilia today."

* * *

A/N: The languages that are in this story are based on real life languages.

Terminian- Japanese

Goronian- Spanish

Sheikah- Cherokee Natives

Kokiri- German

See ya next chap-e-ter!


	9. Chapter 9: Drawing Lines

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: I chose the quote in the beginning for a reason. It's so country, which is how everyone around me talks all the time, and it describes how the characters (mainly females, since that's who the killer is targeting) are feeling.

Also, the playlist. I've been kind of off and on about putting it on here. I'm keeping a playlist mainly to myself, but if there's a chapter that I really, really, REALLY feel I've found a song that enhances it, I'll let you know. There is a song for this chapter. The playlist thus far is:

1: With Me- Sum 41

2: Good Times- Amber Pacific

3: The Time of My Life- David Cook

4: I Got A Feeling- Black Eyed Peas

5: Walking fter You- Foo Fighters

7: Moonlight Sonata- Beethoven

8: Tick Tock- Kesha (I REFUSE TO SUBMIT TO THE DOLLAR SIGN)

9: When the Love Falls- Yiruma

Please, please, PLEASE go YouTube "When the Love Falls", put it on repeat, and listen to it in the background. It captures the mood perfectly, especially the last scene of the chapter. And the last scene is kind of an important one, where the chapter title comes in.

Without further ado:

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Nine: Drawing Lines

_I'd rather get my brains blown out in the wild than wait in terror at the slaughterhouse._

_~ Craig Volk_

Liam was mowing the cemetery. Ilia's funeral was today, about five thirty or so. It was Liam's job to make the cemetery look nice.

About an hour later, Liam parked his lawnmower and turned it off.

"Liam, man, you quittin'?" Dampé, the man who mainly took care of the cemetery asked. He was on his own lawnmower a few rows down.

"Nah. Taking a break! My butt's sore!" Liam shouted. Dampé gave him a thumb's up and continued on his path. Liam, whistling, walked down the row in attempt to shake the soreness. Then he stopped, and the breath whooshed out of him. He crossed himself. He had wandered in front of his parents' graves. His mother's first, maiden, and last name were displayed: Zelda Harkinian Royale. Liam's father was next to her. They were buried together, and had the same headstone. Their wedding picture was in between their names, and a sweet, sincere quote about parenting was displayed above it. Zelda Junior had helped Liam pick out the quote while they were arranging the funeral. Liam bowed his head, and remembered the frantic phone call from his aunt, telling him about the crash. He remembered Zelda's face when he told her. The horrified, wide eyes and mouth... The soft, "W-what?"

Liam straightened up and shook himself. It had been a harrowing experience, but he was over it.

_Over the death of your parents? Hah!_ His internal voice laughed at him. Liam frowned and hopped back onto his lawnmower. He then noticed a shadowy figure run through the trees. He raised an eyebrow and got back off his lawnmower.

"Hello?" he called. "You need help?" He walked towards the trees, where he'd seen the figure. He then heard... crying? His chest deflated a little. He hated it when girls cried...

"N-no!" a voice said, sniffling. Liam felt pity. Often, people would come to the cemetery and cry. He'd never much seen the point in it. What was done was done, there wasn't use crying about it. Even Zelda had seen that. In fact, Liam couldn't remember a single time that she'd come to visit the cemetery...

"Miss?" Liam asked, walking closer to the trees.

"_No, _you can't- that's- I can't believe-"

"You tell _anyone_-"

"Hello?" Liam asked again, louder. The voices stopped.

"What was that?" growled a masculine voice.

"I-I don-don't know," stuttered the crying female.

"If you got us caught..."

The girl started crying again. Liam got a gut feeling that something wasn't right here. He stopped calling out, and he slunk along closer to the trees. Maybe if he was quiet... The couple was very quiet too. Liam wasn't sure why he had this feeling, the feeling that he should turn back, that it was the right thing to do, to go back to mowing his cemetery like a good little boy, or why he was for some reason propelled to find the couple. His heart was thumping in his chest as he neared the spot where the couple had been.

All was quiet. A thick mist descended over everything, so Liam couldn't see Dampé or the gravediggers that were setting up Ilia's plot. It was unseasonably cold, and he could see his breath. He could hear some kind of bird cawing and could feel his heart thumping. Slowly, Liam prowled forward. He put his left foot forward and stepped around the tree line.

No one was there.

Liam looked around for a moment, confused. He'd been _sure _he'd heard people... He shook his head, and turned around, back to his lawnmower.

* * *

"... Ilia Berardi was a promising student here at Hyrule High," said Mr. Ray Amir solemnly. "In her memory, I will read this quotation by a Mr. Joshua Loth Liebman:

_Death is not the enemy of life, but its friend, for it  
is the knowledge that our years are limited  
which makes them so precious. It is the truth  
that time is but lent to us which makes us, at our  
best, look upon our years as a trust handed into  
our temporary keeping."_

Malon watched Mr. Amir intently. His voice was like music, fluid and beautiful, as he read the famous verse. It was like he _became_ the quote, he was one with the quote, as weird as that sounded. He could have been a professional actor, or on Broadway. Malon wondered why a man with so much talent had chosen to teach high school English.

While Malon pondered this with a slight headache, Zelda sat on her right. She had her head in her hand, and her eyes were focusing in and out. She wasn't speaking much, and she looked rather pale. Sheik was on Malon's left. He was slouched over, with his head on his shoulder. His mouth was open, and his eyes were shut. His heavy breathing was loud and annoying. He had no shame in sleeping through Ilia's memorial service. Malon looked at her two, pathetic, hung over friends, and she rolled her eyes. Saria and Fox were on Zelda's side, not looking much better. Mikau and Ruto were out of school today. Sheik, Malon, Zelda, Saria, and Fox were sitting in a row. Malon, alert and attentive, looked like a know-it-all-geeky-kid in a classroom of slacking underachievers. Half the school seemed to be sleeping, like Sheik, or trying very hard not to sleep, like Zelda. There were a few who were paying close attention, but most had either gone to the party last night or had seen only the mean side of Ilia, and didn't care about her memorial service. It was sad, really.

At that moment, Zelda leaned over and hissed in Malon's ear. "Ruto just texted me. Guess what?"

"What?"

"She and Mikau are dating!" Zelda said.

"Oh, lovely," Malon said, the image of the two of them heading to the bedroom last night popping to mind. She grimaced. "I wonder how long that will last."

"Dunno," Zelda told her. "Can I sleep now?"

"No," Malon said. "I have no control over He Who Has No Honor," she nodded at Sheik, "but I will personally kick your butt if you fall asleep through this."

"Fine," growled Zelda. "It's taking for_ever_."

"Yeah, well..." Malon said, directing her attention back to Mr. Amir, who was talking about what an excellent student Ilia was. _Hah!_ Malon thought. Zelda was right. It was taking a very long time, and most of the students were bored. Even the teachers were bored. They were all sitting in a row behind Mr. Amir, who was at the podium. The entire school had congregated in the auditorium. Mr. Darunia was clearly flirting with Miss Nabooru behind Mr. Amir. Malon frowned. How disrespectful!

"Thank you, Mr. Amir," said the principal, Mr. Rauru. "Students, a hand." About thirty students, Malon included, clapped. "_Ahem_. Students, a hand." Rauru said. Malon elbowed Sheik and Zelda and they both started clapping. "Better," Mr. Rauru said, pleased. His face then turned to a serious frown, and his eyes filled with mourning. Malon raised an eyebrow at how fast he could switch faces. She wondered how he had come to be able to do that. Did he lie a lot? Did he have to console parents, pretend he cared about their kids? Whatever the reason, he was good. Malon would have thought he genuinely missed Ilia if she hadn't seen the smile right before the sad face.

"As I'm sure we are all struck with sadness over this tragedy," Rauru began, "I have spoken with the staff here at Hyrule High School. Any tests that were scheduled for this week have been postponed, and all athletic practices and events have been cancelled until next week."

"Yes!" the students hissed together. Rauru smiled under his walrus mustache.

"Mr. Amir has pretty much said it all," he told his audience. "However, I would like to add one thing. This goes for all who like to wander alone, for all whose decisions may not be wise, but are rather based on their wants at the time, and especially the females in here... Stay together. Go places in groups. We've all seen the mourning and the awfulness of Ms. Berardi's death. The repercussions, I do say, are yet to come. So, stay close to your friends. That is all. May Ms. Berardi's soul rest in peace. Students, go to your fifth hour class."

With a united groan, everyone stood up. Malon shook herself.

"Were you listening?" she asked a very groggy Zelda. "That was creepy! And moving. Is there a word for both of those?"

"I don't know," Zelda said. Malon kicked Sheik lightly.

"Sheik. Wake up."

His head snapped up, and he looked around with wide eyes before standing up, stretching, and yawning.

"Did you have a nice nap?" Malon teased. Sheik nodded. He wasn't very talkative after naps.

"You say Sienna asked about me?" Zelda asked Malon, looking over Malon's shoulder.

"Yeah. Why?" Malon asked, turning to see what Zelda was looking at. She saw a flash of lime green hair. Malon looked back at Zelda suspiciously. She had a glint in her eye.

"See ya in Calculus," Zelda said, trying to push through the crowd to get to Sienna.

"Zelda," Malon said firmly.

"What are you doing?" Sheik asked as Zelda pushed past him.

"Zelda, wait!" Malon said, trying to follow. But it seemed the crowd of high school students had solidified again. Malon tried to make her way through, but the blonde hair was soon lost in a throng of everyone else.

"Where's she going?" Sheik asked slowly. Malon shot him a glare. "What did I do?"

"Let's just go to class," Malon grumbled, trying to make her way to Mr. Auru's room.

* * *

Malon was sitting, her arms crossed, in her desk. Her eyebrows were knit together in irritation. The calculus room had tables that sat two instead of desks. Malon and Zelda usually shared a desk. However, Zelda still wasn't here.

Mr. Auru (who was rumored to be related to the principal, Rauru) was sitting in his desk, grading papers. Malon ignored Sheik's probing looks and tried to focus on the newest book she was reading. All she could think about was Zelda.

It may seem as if Malon was overreacting without reason. Almost like a jealous girlfriend. But the fact that Zelda had admitted to her that she wanted to continue looking for Da Bomb was disturbing in itself, and it was increasingly worrisome when Zelda decided to go randomly talk to a girl that she hadn't got along with before, a girl who had already questioned Zelda's disappearance and was interested in the murders. Sienna's character in itself seemed kind of fishy. Malon was worried that this would increase the probability Zelda would go after Da Bomb and hurt herself. Again.

With stellar timing, Zelda walked in right as the bell rang. Mr. Auru looked up and chuckled.

"You're cutting it close, kid."

"Sorry, Mr. Auru," Zelda said. Malon was slightly pleased to see the expression on Zelda's face was sour.

"How'd it go?" Malon whispered as Mr. Auru stood up to the board to begin his lecture and Zelda sat down beside her.

"Not well," Zelda said. "Please wipe that smug grin off your face."

Malon didn't even try. She pulled out a notebook paper and wrote in her clean, neat, writing: _So, what happened?_ She passed the paper to Zelda, who glared at it and then began to write. After a bit of writing, she passed it back.

_Nothing. I told her I heard that she had asked about me, and she got all snotty and wouldn't talk to me. I mentioned Ilia and she got mad and stormed off._

_Why isn't she here?_ Malon wrote back. Sienna was supposed to be in this class.

_Don't know. Must be skipping. That's not unusual for her. _Zelda passed the note back, and Malon looked down at it. Zelda jerked it back._ QUIT GRINNING LIKE AN IDIOT!_

_Sorry._

Zelda shot her a look, clearly saying, "You are not." Malon shrugged and directed her attention to Mr. Auru. Zelda sat beside her and pouted.

* * *

Normally they would have had practice, but since Rauru had cancelled all the practices for the day, Zelda was walking to Sheik's Jeep with Mido following behind her in a stony silence. He used to be all talk and chatter, but he seemed moody after he'd hit the growth spurt. Sheik had had to go talk to his Sheikah I teacher about a test he'd failed. Zelda thought that was ironic, what with Sheik being part Sheikah and all, that he was failing Sheikah I.

Zelda heard a large, moronic laugh and she rolled her eyes. She would recognize that loud, rich laugh anywhere. It was Ganondorf Dragmire. Then, she heard something that caught her attention. It was Ilia's name.

"Mido, go to the car," she told him.

"Fine with me," Mido said, moodily stalking to the Jeep. Zelda walked along the rows of cars, following Ganondorf's voice.

"... she was _fine, _alright," Vaati said.

"Mmhmm," Ganondorf mused. "Tapped her on football homecoming last year."

"Dude!" Zelda heard flesh on flesh and imagined a high-five.

"They say, when she died, she was gutted inside and out," Ganondorf said slowly. "You know. Insides on the ground."

"Yeah," Vaati said. Zelda heard fidgeting, and then a slamming door. She peeked around someone's mom's van and saw Vaati walking away and Ganondorf in the driver seat of his car, watching something calmly. Then, he put the car in reverse and drove away. Zelda took a minute to calm down. It was only a couple of stupid boys. Stupid, high school, boys. They didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

Just some stupid kids.

As Zelda turned to walk back to the Jeep, her phone rang with her favorite ring tone.

"Hello?" she answered brightly, shoving her slightly fearful mood away to make room for a more tender one.

"Hey," said Link. "How are you?"

"Fine," Zelda said, walking along the parking lot to get to the Jeep. The skies were cloudy, and it looked as if they were about to get a massive thunderstorm. The air was thick and muggy, and flies were buzzing around like crazy.

"How was school?" Link asked politely.

"Eh," Zelda said. "They had a memorial service for Ilia today."

"They did? How was it?"

"Truthfully, I don't remember," Zelda said, biting her lip. "I was drifting in and out."

"Why?" Link asked. "That's not like you."

"Well, I, uh, kind of went to a party last night."

Silence.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

More silence.

"Am I in trouble?" Zelda asked, her voice small. Link sighed, distressed. His end of the line was quiet. Zelda saw the Jeep, and saw Sheik walking from the parking lot. Mido was sitting in the back seat, and it looked as if he were eating something. Zelda smiled. She knew if he'd gotten into Sheik's Skittles, Sheik would kill him.

"I guess not," Link said. "Please, please, don't go again, though."

"Okay," Zelda said. She paused. "I thought you'd be mad."

"I know," Link said, his voice heavy. "And I normally would have... but I want this weekend to be nice."

"This weekend? What's special about this weekend?"

"I'm coming for a visit."

"You are?!? No joke?! Oh, that's _awesome!_" Zelda said, a smile breaking out across her face.

"Yep. My only class on Friday is a morning class, and I'm going to catch a plane ride and get there Friday evening. I'll leave Sunday afternoon."

"Link, that's amazing!" Zelda said. "Ohh, I miss you so much!"

"I miss you too," Link said. By hearing his voice, Zelda knew he was smiling.

"Well, it looks like Sheik's pretty impatient," Zelda said, looking at the Jeep, where he sat.

"Ah," Link said. "I forgot you got rides from him." There was a little silence, and then, "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!"

"Who is this she?" Zelda asked, smiling that Link was trying to breeze over the awkward moment. "And why does she continually nasty things?"

Link's rich laugh melted away the nervous feelings Ganondorf and Vaati had given her earlier.

"I love you," Zelda said.

"I love you too," Link told her.

"Talk to you later," she said, looking at Sheik. He was impatiently waiting in the car.

"Bye," he said huskily, before hanging up. Zelda hung up as well, and crossed the distance to the Jeep.

* * *

The ride home was slightly awkward. Zelda felt butterflies the whole time, and when Sheik would look at her to ask her a question, she would feel uncomfortable for some reason. She couldn't put a finger on why. Maybe because they both still had headaches? Bleh, even in her head, that sounded stupid. Zelda let it go, and wondered about the storm that was coming. The radio was playing faintly, and the weather was on. Apparently it was supposed to be a bad one. Zelda sighed. She liked how it smelled right before it rained, and how everyone loved it but no one could describe it. She liked the tension in the air, and the excitement and anticipation up until that first raindrop fell. Storms were nice. It was the muddy, icky-ness that followed that she disliked.

"We're home," Sheik announced, pulling into the driveway. Mido got out as soon as they were parked and walked to the front door. Zelda watched him.

"Do you get the feeling he's actually embarrassed to be around us?" she asked.

"Yeah," Sheik said, snorting a little. A silence settled.

"Well," Zelda said, awkwardly gathering her things and opening the door, "thank you for the ride. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Sheik said. Zelda closed the door and walked across the Baldwins' yard into her own. She stomped up the white, wooden steps and had her hand on the knob of the front door.

"Z, wait," said a male voice from behind her. Zelda jumped up and turned.

"Gee, Sheik, you scared the crap out of me," Zelda said uneasily. Sheik smiled. He was standing by the steps, with his hands in his jean pockets.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure," Zelda said, sitting down on the swing. Sheik took a seat beside her. They sat in silence. "Sheik, are you okay?"

"Yeah," he said softly, watching the sky. "Were you listening to the radio?"

"Yeah."

"Ah," Sheik said. "I need to talk to you about something."

"Okay. What?"

They swung for a little bit, and then Sheik spoke.

"Did Ruto tell you she and Mikau are dating now?"

"Yup," Zelda said. "I don't know what to make of it. They've liked each other for awhile now, but I can see them having sex a few times and then it being over. What's that have to do with anything?"

"I don't know," Sheik said. "I've seen it coming for awhile now."

"Oh really?" Zelda asked, wondering where this was going. It wasn't Sheik-like to care about things like high school relationships. He liked running. And sports in general. And his guitar.

"He's liked her for a really long time," Sheik hinted. "Remember how they used to date in junior high?"

"It wasn't really dating, Sheik," Zelda said, her heart fluttering like a hummingbird in her chest as she thought of another pair in their group that had dated in junior high school. "Dating should only count when one or both people can drive places."

"I don't think so," Sheik told her. "Not if they really care about each other... He really likes her, you know. He waited so long because he wasn't sure about how she felt about him. You know, always talking about other boys. But there were moments that made him wonder..."

"Uh huh," the blonde said nervously. "Well, as nice as this is-" she spoke, standing up. She felt Sheik gently grab her hand, and she turned and looked at him. His touch was like electricity on her palm. The look on his face mad her throat dry up and get very hot. Her heart was hammering.

"Don't go," he said. "Please."

She bit her lip.

"We're not talking about Mikau and Ruto, are we?" she whispered. Sheik just stared at her.

"Do you want to?" he asked. Zelda saw the multiple meanings of his words. _Do you want to talk about Mikau and Ruto? Do you want to try to date? Do you want to...? _Zelda's heart hammered in her chest as Sheik stood up and drew nearer to her. All she could see was his deep, brown eyes... She could feel his warm breath on her face...

"No," she said, gasping and pulling away from the almost-kiss. "Sheik I- I'm with Link," she said, trying to catch her breath.

Sheik watched her, and then his eyes fell and turned hard.

"Ah," he said, drawing away. Then, he reached out and touched her cheek. His touch, like when he'd held her hand, was like electricity. Zelda's blood boiled, but in a satisfying, exciting way. Sheik watched her for a moment more, and then she turned and opened the door.

"Bye," she said awkwardly, pausing in the door frame and not turning to look at him. "See you tomorrow."

Silence. And then, "Goodbye, Zelda."

Zelda felt chills. His tone sounded eerily... _final. _She stepped inside and shut the door, shutting Sheik out. He stood there for a moment more, and then furiously leapt off the porch and ran into the woods behind their houses. He punched a tree as hard as he could, and again, and again, trying to relieve himself of this white-hot anger...

Zelda was inside, peeking out the sliding glass back door. She watched Sheik sprint off into dark forest. She bit her hand to stop the loud, obnoxious cries, but nothing could stop the silent tears, similar as to how no one could stop the water beginning to fall from the sky or the peals of thunder beginning to shake the earth.


	10. Chapter 10: A Dragmirely Direction

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Ten: A Dragmire-ly Direction

_Dark times will bring people together..._

_... and split them apart._

_"Zeeeeeelda Royallllle," hissed a voice in her ear. Zelda panted and tried to run. Sweat shone on her face and arms, and she was on the verge of crying, she was in such panic. She was totally confused and not sure where she actually was. There were trees. Lots of trees. It was an endless maze of trees as far as she could see. She wanted out, but they all looked the same, all exactly the same..._

_She tripped on a root, but caught herself on the tree. Her heart thumping like a battering ram in her ribcage, she straightened up and ran... right into someone's arms._

_"Z?" Link said, confused._

_"Oh Link, oh Link, oh Link I need you," she said, the tears coming. "He's here, he's here, we have to get out!"_

_"Z?" he repeated. Then he began to change. His warm, comforting arms turned to steel cables binding her from leaving. His chest went from broad to barrel-shaped, and he shrunk a few inches. His skin darkened, and lastly, his sparkling blue eyes turned to dark, cesspools of malevolence...

* * *

_

It was Thursday morning, the day after Ilia's memorial service and Sheik and Zelda's awkward conversation. Zelda woke up, her eyes red.

"_Tread lightly, tread lightly!_" an annoying little voice echoed in her head. "_Tread lightly, tread lightly!_"

_Oh, shut up, _Zelda thought in annoyance. She hadn't got much sleep the night before. She kept thinking about her and Sheik. Even though she'd been telling herself she and Link belonged together... did they? Things had changed once he went to college, but she'd been blaming it on stress and the factor that he was so far away. But what if it was something different? What if this new Link, the one who half the time did not pick up her calls, was the Link that was going to stay? What if the Link that brought her random gifts of candy and movies and such was... gone?

Sheik had always been there for her. Always. Even when no one else had. When her parents had died, the only ones who stuck with her were Liam and Sheik. Their parents and grandparents had teased them about winding up with each other... What if they were right? Sheik was her best friend. What if that meant she'd made a mistake when she'd left him on her porch? What if he didn't want to talk to her anymore?

The though made her stomach churn uncomfortably. She stood up out of bed, and the muggy air wrapped around her legs lovingly. Both of her windows were open, so she could hear the rain last night. It was a mild drizzle this morning. Zelda looked at the clock. She took her time getting ready, meticulously straightening every hair, making sure every eyelash was curled. She wasn't sure why she was being so slow this morning. Maybe to put off her inevitable awkward meeting with Sheik?

When she had nothing more she could possibly do to enhance her appearance, she sighed, grabbed her bags, and stepped out the door. Sheik hadn't come to get her yet... How odd. He wasn't very flexible, and they usually left at promptly seven thirty. It was seven thirty five, and he hadn't come to get her yet. Zelda shouted a good-bye to Liam, and then walked out the door and to the Baldwins'.

When she knocked on the door, there was a little wait, and then Mrs. Baldwin answered.

"Oh! Zelda!" she said. "Are you feeling better?"

"... yeah," Zelda said. Feeling better from what? Had Sheik told his parents about their little episode yesterday? That seemed kind of unlikely...

"Well that's good to hear," she said. "Sheik said that you had the flu this morning and didn't need a ride to school."

Zelda paused. "Oh," she said. "Yeah, I'm feeling better. Could you tell him I still need a ride?"

"Sorry, dearie," Mrs. Baldwin said. "He and Mido left five minutes ago, you just missed them."

"Oh," Zelda said again, dumbly.

"I can take you if you need it," Mrs. Baldwin offered.

"Nah, I'm good," Zelda said, collecting herself again. "Thanks anyway, Mrs. Baldwin!"

"No problem, sweetheart!" Sheik's mother said. "Good to see you up and around!"

"Yup," Zelda said. _I'm going to kill him.

* * *

_

Zelda wound up having to walk three blocks to the bus station. Liam couldn't take her to school because he had to be at work, so she had to walk the entire way to the bus stop. Her hair which had looked so great this morning had frizzed and semi-curled with the drizzle. Zelda was kind of hurt that Sheik lied about her being sick so he wouldn't have to see her, and at the same time she was so angry that the entire three block walk she contemplated various ways to kill him. She hadn't ruled out medieval torture quiet yet.

She was on the bus to school with a crowd of rowdy teenagers. Zelda sat in a seat by herself and stared out the window dismally. The roads were slick, it was still drizzling, and she hadn't finished her English paper and was bound to fail it. As Zelda thought about this, the bus came to a stop. Zelda stood up, but people anxious to get inside pushed past. Not wanting to try to fight with the flow, Zelda waited for those who wanted to get off do so before she got off. As she stepped off the bus, someone touched her hand. Zelda yelled out and jumped.

"It's only me, Miss Priss," said a cynical, green-haired girl. Zelda rolled her eyes.

"Why do you call me that? It's not like I have a ton of money."

"Because you do stupid eye rolls like that and you're absolutely perfect with an absolutely perfect boyfriend and an absolutely perfect life," Sienna said. Zelda smiled weakly, thinking about Sheik.

"If you can't stand me so much, why are you talking to me?" Zelda asked.

"Look," Sienna said, looking around. She leaned in closer to Zelda and whispered in her ear. "Another girl died."

"No! Who was it?"

"I don't know, a drifter, I think," Sienna said. "It hasn't hit the news yet. I only know because, well, I found the body."

"_What?!_"

"I take a shortcut through the woods to get home after school," Sienna told her as they slowly walked on the grounds of Hyrule High. "I found her. They haven't got a time of death yet, but they don't think she'd been dead long."

"So that means it was an adult who's doing this," Zelda said, feeling slightly relieved. She'd only had slight suspicions of people around her, but those had to be void. If Sienna found her on her way home from school and she was already dead, it meant that no one who went to school with them could have done it. Ganondorf, Vaati, and Agahnim popped to mind.

"Not really," Sienna said. "You've never taken the bus home before, have you?"

"Once or twice."

"Well, I live a ways away, and the bus is slow. It has to stop all the time, too. It takes me about an hour after school gets let out to go home. So we can't rule anyone out because of that."

"Ah," Zelda said. She felt a tugging in her gut as the vision of Ganondorf faded.

"Listen, I know you're involved with this somehow," Sienna said, her voice still low and harsh. "And so I want to talk to you. I have dirt on Ilia that no one knows. Not even the police."

"Oh?" Zelda said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Sienna said. "You seem dumb enough and blonde enough to do the stupid things that I don't want to get into, am I right? I'll provide you with information, and you can do the 'sleuthing'."

"Uh huh," Zelda said, her eyebrows knitting together. She wasn't stupid... She wasn't going to go do stupid things, either. She'd still talk with Sienna, but she would keep her head and most definitely not pull anymore stunts.

"How about coffee, after school?"

"Sure," Zelda said. "The one in the center of town, right?"

"Right," said Sienna. "I'll tell you my dirt and then we can plan our next course of action."

"Sure," Zelda repeated.

"Also, don't tell anyone about this," Sienna said. "Some of the people you hang around with seem kind of fishy."

"What do you mean?" Zelda asked, hairs rising on the back of her neck.

"Just watch yourself," Sienna said, and then her face contorted into irritation. "Don't take that the wrong way, it's not like I care about you or anything. But some of the people you talk to seem kind of... Not together. Like that Mikau Merobb or whoever. And have any of your friends been acting different? Changing their ways? Not treating you like they used to?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zelda said frostily.

"Uh huh," Sienna said smugly. "So why did you ride the bus to school, Princess?"

Zelda fixed a steady glare on Sienna. "That's none of your business."

"Right," she said, smirking. Then, the smirk disappeared. "Coffee shop, after school."

"In the center of town. Don't tell anyone."

"Right," Sienna repeated. "See you then, Princess." She creepily walked away, and Zelda stared after her. She leaned against the wall. She was in the center of campus. There was a small, grassy area and some benches where students could take their lunches and eat them. There was a grassy, flowery area in the middle, and it was shaped in the sacred Triforce of the Goddesses. Zelda sent a quick prayer for luck to the Goddesses, and then stood up and walked into the English department, towards the library, where her first class was.

Zelda stopped by her locker first and dropped off some of her books. She hung her jacket up and put her gym bag inside, and then turned. Several lockers down was a curly, reddish-brown haired kid that Zelda recognized.

"The flu, huh?" she shouted icily down the hallway. He didn't answer. "You didn't think I might have wanted to talk to you about yesterday?" He maintained his silence, gathered a couple books, and turned and walked the other direction. "You were my best friend!" Zelda yelled after Sheik, her voice bouncing around the empty hallway. The silence of no one caring pressed down on her until she felt so uncomfortable that she had to leave, struggling not to cry of frustration.

* * *

"Alright, guys, ten laps!" growled Mr. Darunia, the PE coach. With a groan that most of the kids let out, Mr. Darunia's second-hour PE class began running their warm up laps. Zelda ran beside Malon and Saria. Usually, Fox, Mikau, Ruto, and Sheik ran with them as well, but Sheik and Fox were running on their own, as were the new couple of Mikau and Ruto. As Zelda watched them, Mikau looked down with a tenderness in his eye that she hadn't seen from him before. Ruto giggled and her cheeks warmed. Zelda looked away, irritated at the reminder of her and Sheik from yesterday.

"Z, what's wrong?" asked Saria, who ran cross country with her and had her breathing under control.

"Nothing," Zelda growled. Malon raised her eyebrow at her but didn't say anything. Malon was extremely out of shape. She had a cute, slim figure, but she did no exercise whatsoever beside this PE class. She huffed and puffed beside the clearly in control Saria and Zelda.

"Something," Saria said.

"Not right now," Zelda said, her heart hurting. "Please?" _I just possibly lost my best friend, and I don't really want to talk about it. Saria's usually pretty easy-going and can pick up on body-_

"Okay," Saria said cautiously. Zelda smiled. Saria had pulled through again. Saria was known for her staggering intelligence and her calm we'll-work-it-out-when-you-feel-like-it personality. It was something Zelda really liked about her. Her other girl friends, Ruto and Malon, had a tendency to pry and a tendency to try to make Zelda see things her way. Saria was a very good listener in contrast with the other two.

Zelda, Saria, and Malon finished their laps with one of the first groups of kids. Sheik and Fox had finished before them, and Mikau and Ruto were lagging behind with the slackers.

"Merobb, Eaton, hurry up!" Darunia barked. He knew they could finish faster. The rest of the thirty-odd kids in the class began to stretch out while Mr. Darunia walked around, ready to crack the whip on anyone who wasn't working. Zelda looked around for Sienna, but she couldn't see her. It wouldn't surprise her if Sienna had skipped. Sienna skipped a lot. Most everyone Zelda was acquainted with at Hyrule High was in this gym class, including her group of friends, Ganondorf, Vaati, and Agahnim, and Sienna.

"Alright," Mr. Darunia said as they finished up their exercises. "I really don't feel like taking you outside to run the mile today, like we usually do on Wednesdays, nor do I feel the urge to run it in here, so we're gonna play a game today."

"Mr. D's the man!" Ganondorf said, pumping his fist. Mr. Darunia looked down at him with a flash of tenderness, and then hardened.

"I'm gonna barf," Malon wheezed to Zelda.

"Aim in a general Dragmire-ly direction."

"Can do," Malon whispered back.

"So! Today we're doing dodge ball," Mr. Darunia said. "Anyone want to be captains?"

No one raised their hands.

"Very slow this morning, aren't we?" Darunia muttered. "Fine, I'll pick. Mr. Dragmire, will you do the honor of being Captain Number One?"

"Sure," Ganondorf said, standing up.

"Let's see, uh... Baldwin?" Darunia said. "Yes. Baldwin! Get up. You're Captain Number Two."

"Oh gee," Zelda said, her face contracting again.

"What?" Malon asked.

"This means I'm either on Ganondorf's team or Sheik's."

"What's wrong with Sheik?"

"He's just... being jerkish," Zelda said, her cheeks heating up, remembering that they had almost kissed yesterday.

After a coin toss that Ganondorf won, he picked Vaati, the obvious choice.

"Mikau," Sheik said automatically.

"Japas."

"Fox."

"Kafei."

Sheik hesitated. Usually after the boys from their group of friends were picked, the pecking order was Zelda, Malon, Saria, Ruto. Zelda was next. She stared at the floor so she wouldn't have to look at Sheik.

"Malon," he said softly. Malon, surprised, stood up and joined Sheik's team.

"Darmani."

"Saria."

"Evan."

"Ruto."

_Okay,_ Zelda thought. _So, I got picked out of our usual order. He usually picks me before Malon, Saria, and Ruto. But we're still friends, he won't make me go with Ganondorf... Will he?_

"Ingo."

"Fado."

"Peach."

"Navi."

"That... kid," Ganondorf said, gesturing at the kid that no one knew the sex of. It was wearing long, black pants today, so no one could see whether or not the leg hair was boyish or girlish.

"Kotake."

_Oh, come on, Sheik, _Zelda thought. She actually looked up at him, pleading, hoping he wouldn't make her go with Ganondorf. Sheik didn't even look at her. As the teams grew, Zelda remained seated on the floor with the fat kids and Agahnim, who was so skinny and weasly he was no good in sports. At this point, Zelda refused to look at Sheik.

"Agahnim," Ganondorf said. "Hey, how has Zelda gone unpicked?" he asked. Zelda ignored him. Now, he would definitely pick her to torment her on his next turn. There was a slight pause.

"Zelda," Sheik said, clipping her name short. Angry, she stood up and walked to Sheik's team, although far away from Sheik himself. Malon sidled up next to her.

"Seriously. What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Zelda said shortly.

"Alright!" Mr. Darunia said. "Teams, go to your opposite ends! Captains, help me grab the balls!"

There were a few snickers, and Darunia scowled at them all.

"NOT in that tense!" he growled, picking up a handful of red, rubber, balls from a metal box. Zelda stalked over to her side and waited for the game to begin.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Malon asked her softly.

"Not here," she snarled, glaring at the back of Sheik's head as he helped Darunia and Ganondorf set out the balls and start back to his team. He was now close enough he could hear them, and Zelda did not want to whine about how she "missed" him or anything.

"He didn't give you a ride to school this morning, did he?" Malon asked soothingly. "You weren't with him when he came in."

Zelda said nothing to this.

"Want to talk about it?" she offered again. Saria was silent. Zelda shook her head.

"I told you, not here."

"Do you need a ride home after school?" Malon asked.

"I have plans after school!" Zelda said loudly enough for Sheik to hear. She thought she saw him flinch, but she wasn't sure.

"With who?" Malon asked.

Zelda hesitated. She whispered, "Sienna."

"WHAT?" Malon cried. Several people turned and looked. Zelda ignored them and positioned herself on the line, ready to sprint for the balls (snicker snicker). Her mission was accomplished. Now, she knew that Sheik was probably dying to know what sort of plans had caused that kind of reaction in Malon. _Hah!_

"Yup. We're getting coffee."

"I'm coming."

"No, you're not," Zelda said, alarmed. "I wasn't supposed to talk about it."

"Which makes it even less suspicious," Malon grumbled.

"GO!" Darunia shouted. The horde of kids stampeded towards the center of the gym, where the dodge balls were lined up. Zelda grabbed two and ran backwards, quicker than most of the other kids. She prowled along the back of the gym. In her currently angry state, she was most definitely in the mood to leave some welts today. Unfortunately, Malon came up behind her, hissing like an angry banshee.

"Talking about _what?_"

"What do you think?" Zelda asked, dodging a rubber ball thrown by Ganondorf.

"_No!_" Malon denied.

"You're not my mother, Malon," Zelda snapped.

"I know I'm not," Malon said. A ball came flying at her. Zelda thrust one of her arms out and deflected the flying ball with one in her hand. "I'm a friend. Right now, you're making me a very concerned friend. A very concerned one."

"What I want to do is my business, and my business alone," Zelda said, hurling one of her balls at Agahnim, who didn't see it coming. She glimpsed Sheik in the corner of her vision. _Probably eavesdropping, little sneak!_ "And if I get hurt, it's not your business either."

Malon's mouth formed a perfect O. "What do you _mean, _it's none of my business?!? Am I not your friend anymore, either?!?"

"No, no," Zelda said, backtracking. Her heart throbbed a little. "I-I, sorry."

Malon pouted.

"Sorry!" Zelda repeated, more firmly. A ball came flying at them, and Zelda deflected it again. "See? I just defended you. I just saved your life."

"I'm just trying to save yours," Malon said quietly.

"So dramatic," Zelda critiqued.

"You don't really listen to yourself talk, do you?"

"Not usually, no."

Malon sighed.

"I said sorry."

"I heard you. I'm just wondering..."

"What?"

"If you really want me to be your friend... You'd let me go with you to the coffee shop."

"Are you kidding me?!"

"Fine. I see how things are," Malon said sadly.

"No, c'mon, don't be like that," Zelda groaned. "_Fine. _Sienna's gonna kill me..."

"Did you just say Sienna?" Sheik said incredulously.

"No."

"You're lying," he said smoothly. His eyes had a shield over them. It irritated her that he accused her so easily of lying, when he was clearly being the jerk-hole in this situation.

"I'm not the only one lying," she reminded him. "Last I checked I haven't thrown up since..."

"... since we found out Ilia had died," Sheik said quietly. "I was there, remember?"

Zelda remembered how great that day was. She remembered that morning, when she'd first noticed how strong he'd gotten and he'd grabbed her. She remembered parasailing with him...

Then she was angry. Angry at how he'd changed. Angry that he couldn't accept that she liked Link, and just Link, and how Link and she were meant to be together. Angry because he'd put her on the spot. Angry because he'd forced her to make her choose. Angry because he'd forced her to make her choose someone else. She was just angry. She hurled the ball at him, and for the second time nailed him right in the nose.

"Friendly fire!" announced Ganondorf joyously. "I love it when that happens. They're both out now."

"Shut up," Zelda said, stalking over to the bleachers.

"Zelda," Sheik said. She felt him touch her arm. Still mad, she flicked her arm and he let go. She changed course and walked out of the gymnasium.

* * *

She'd skipped class plenty of times before, but with Link. Now, Link wasn't here. Zelda debated calling him for old time's sake, but then decided she'd better not. He was probably in class. She walked upstairs to the fire escape, opened the door, and sat down.

This is where she and Link used to go sometimes. She remembered laughing her, occasionally sneaking kisses, and running when another teacher came out. She remembered good times with Link like she'd remembered good times with Sheik. Her two guys... She'd always had two special guys in her life, after Link came along. Link respected that Sheik had been there before, and would always be her friend. Link had made his dislike of Sheik known, but had never made her choose between them._ Maybe that was because he thought you might go run off to Sheik, _ a nasty little voice in her head said. _No._ She firmly told it. _It's because he's a good guy._

_... Aw, hell, I'm talking to myself. Aw, hell! _she thought as the door opened. She waited for the shouting to start, but it didn't come.

"I used to come here when I skipped, too," said Mr. Darunia softly.

"I'm not going back."

"I know."

A silence settled. Mr. Darunia kept his distance and leaned against the door frame.

"What's going on with you and Baldwin?"

"He's being an ass," she said, not caring about her language in front of teachers.

"If you don't mind me saying, it looked like it was you causing trouble out there," Darunia told her.

"You don't even know," she said venomously.

" 'You don't even know,'," he repeated. "That's what my wife tells me all the time. 'You don't even know! You don't even know!' Ugh, I want to smack her sometimes."

Zelda forced a giggle.

"Maybe I do know," he offered. "If you want to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks, but no thanks, Mr. D.," Zelda said.

"Alright," Darunia said, nodding. "So be it. You don't have to come back to class, if you don't want to."

Zelda internally groaned. "I don't want special treatment," she said, standing up and flashing a smile. "Really. I'm fine. I'm ready to go back."

"You sure?"

"Yup!" Zelda said, showing a one hundred watt smile. "Let's go." She pushed herself past Mr. Darunia and walked into the gymnasium, ignoring the uncomfortable ache in her heart and the knot in her stomach.


	11. Chapter 11: Carrot Top's Temper

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: I'm currently sucking on a tropical splash sucker. Or, chupachupa, as my Spanish teacher says. :D Hope y'all are having fun wherever you are!! I haven't written this much because the wind has finally taken its icy blast of agony elsewhere!! YAAAY! My boyfriend and I went to the wilderness park as soon as it got warm, and it was amazing :) And next week, SPRING BREAK!! WOO!! This will either mean that I will write a TON because of the extra time, or I won't write much at all. Not sure which.

Da da DA DAAAAAAH:

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Eleven: Shorter Than Carrot Top's Temper

_Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love._

_~ Charles M. Schultz_

"I'm just not sure this is a good idea."

"It's probably not."

"It just feels... like this isn't what we're supposed to be doing."

"You've got it."

"I know," Malon said, flustered. She was driving herself and Zelda to the coffee shop Zelda said she had agreed to meet with Sienna at. Zelda was in the passenger seat, staring out the window. It was still drizzling. The day hadn't been as interesting as PE had been. Sheik and Zelda had kept their distance from each other, not talking to each other. Malon was worried. They'd fought before, but it had never lasted this long before. Even when they were mad, they wouldn't keep an icy silence. In her classes with one of them, neither would talk very much. Zelda looked irritated and hurt, and Sheik looked resigned and hurting as well. When Malon had a class with both of them, no one talked the entire hour. She would try to start a conversation, but neither would get into it. They wouldn't ignore each other, they just... weren't talking. It was a sad silence. It made Malon miss the days when the three of them could hang out for hours on end before getting sick of each other. She turned her attention to the issue at hand: the meeting with Sienna.

"Do you think she'll be mad I'm there?"

"Probably. I wasn't supposed to talk about it," Zelda said. "Did you mention this to anyone?"

"No," Malon answered.

"Did... he ask?" Zelda asked, not bringing herself to say Sheik's name.

"No," Malon said slowly. "Z, what's up with you two?"

Zelda sighed.

"We kind of... Well, he started it," Zelda said lamely.

"I know he did," Malon said, resigned.

"But..." Zelda said. "He... started talking about Mikau and Ruto. And them dating. And about how much he likes her."

"What's so bad about that?"

"He wasn't really talking about Mikau and Ruto..." Zelda said miserably. "He basically told me he likes me and he thinks we could date."

Malon whistled.

"And..."

"And?" Malon said, pulling into the coffee shop they had been in so many times before.

"And he almost kissed me."

"_What?_" Malon said, her jaw dropping.

"Yeah," Zelda said.

"What did you do?"

"I freaked," the blonde said dismally. "I kinda jumped away and told him I was with Link."

"What'd he do?"

"He said okay... and bye. And then ran off."

"And that's all?"

"Yeah," Zelda said, leaning heavily against the window. "He also told his parents that I was sick so he wouldn't have to look at me this morning."

"What an ass!"

"My thoughts," Zelda said, smiling. "I woke up and walked to his house, kinda annoyed he hadn't come to get me yet, and his mom was so surprised to see a healthy Zelda."

"Did you tell them you weren't really sick?"

"No," Zelda said. "That would have been awkward."

"Wow," Malon said. "What a jerk."

"Yeah," Zelda said, opening the door.

"Do you need a ride tomorrow?"

"Probably."

"Alright," Malon said. The two girls walked inside. "She's not here," Malon said. "Do you think she'll show?"

"Yes," Zelda said. She seemed confident. "She told me the bus is slow and they have to make a ton of stops."

"True," Malon said. They walked to the counter and ordered two mocha frappuccinos and then sat down. They waited about ten more minutes before Sienna walked in. Zelda's stomach jumped as Sienna's eyes scanned the room and saw the two of them. They narrowed more than usual, and then she turned.

"Wait!" Zelda said, getting up. Malon started to get up as well. "I'll handle this," Zelda said. "Trust me." Malon looked at her for a moment, and then sat down and sipped her coffee. Zelda walked outside and saw a green-haired girl walking in the opposite direction. She jogged over to her. "Sienna!"

"You promised you wouldn't tell," Sienna said.

"I didn't mean to! I promise!" Zelda said. Sienna was still walking. "Oh, come on. Please?"

"You broke your promise, which obviously means I can't trust you. If we're going to be working together on this, I need to be able to trust you."

"Sienna," Zelda said, stopping in front of her. Sienna looked into her blue eyes. "I swear on my mother's grave I won't break another promise to you." It seemed as if everything grew slightly colder around them, and it grew a little quieter. Behind Sienna, Zelda saw a flash of red hair disappear into a bush. It was low, and children liked to play here, so Zelda dismissed it. Sienna's eyes widened.

"_Fine, _I guess we can give this a shot," she said, turning. Almost skipping, Zelda walked by her side into the shop. She and Sienna walked in silence, and when Zelda saw Malon, she was glad she hadn't come alone after all. Zelda took her seat by her, and Sienna sat across from them.

"Do you want anything? I'll buy," Malon said helpfully.

"I don't want your money, carrot-top," Sienna said. Malon maintained her sweet smile.

"Neither did I really want to give you my hard earned cash, witch."

"Malon!" Zelda said harshly. Sienna only laughed.

"You're gonna try to insult me without cussing?" she laughed. "Too afraid to say it? Biiiiiitch. Bitch. Bitch. Bi-"

"Stop!" Zelda said, sitting up straight. The two girls paused. "Can we please just do what we came here to do?" A silence came.

"My dirt on Ilia," Sienna said slowly. "Ilia was a prostitute. She was careful about it. She only went to towns far away."

"Ilia _Berardi?_" Zelda said in shock.

"Yes, blondie. Be quiet," Sienna said. "This isn't exactly a well-known fact. Ilia had a reputation."

"That makes sense," Malon said. "With her daddy being a class-A business man, and Ilia herself being a popular bee at school."

"But why would she want to?" Zelda asked. "Surely not for money. Her parents are loaded. The inside of her house is _beautiful._"

Sienna and Malon stared at her.

"How do you know what the inside of her house looks like?" Malon asked.

"There was a party I went to there," Zelda said. She then began blushing at some forgotten memory. "That's where I... never mind."

"What?" Malon asked.

"Nothing," Zelda said firmly.

"Blondie, this might be important."

"How would me losing my- ?" Zelda blushed. Malon's jaw dropped again.

"Were you about to say you losing your virginity?"

Her cheeks flaming red, Zelda nodded.

"To _who?!_"

"No one of consequence," Zelda said. Malon could tell that this time, she wasn't gonna give. "So anyway. What about the girl yesterday?"

"Her name was Marin Tarin," Sienna said, flinching very slightly. "They haven't told me much about her, but she looked like a hooker. Well, her skirt was shorter than carrot-top's temper, if you know what I mean."

"But the police don't know if she was a prostitute or not?"

"If they do, they haven't told me," Sienna said.

"Will someone fill me in?" Malon asked.

"Last night, I found another dead girl," Sienna told her.

"How do you know it's related? Surely there's a lot of people who... you know. Die."

"Trust me," Sienna said, rolling her eyes. "She had a six carved into her chest. I think I know what I'm talking about."

"A _what?!_"

"The cops told me that to explain. The killer writes the number of the death on them somewhere. Apparently the murders are getting more and more violent," Sienna said. "The first few were suffocated. Ilia was stabbed a few times. It looked like he freakin' tortured this girl to death." Sienna actually, visibly, shook. "Also, the number thing. The first few times it was drawn on with a Sharpie. With the one before Ilia, it was scratched on. With Ilia, it was a little deeper than a scratch, kind of like a cut. Marin... Ugh."

"Okay," Zelda said hastily. "Let's not talk about the corpses."

"Fine, princess," Sienna said, folding her arms.

"How do you know Ilia was a prostitute?"

"The dirty slut got involved with someone I-..." Sienna stopped herself, and then trailed off. Her electric blue lips firmly pressed together.

"With who?" Malon asked.

"None of your business!" Sienna said, her face heating up.

"Was it someone we know?" Malon said, intrigued.

"Mal," Zelda said softly.

"Why does it matter?" Sienna stood up, her face tomato red. Zelda felt panicked. She could tell that Sienna was about to go, and she didn't feel that they had talked enough.

"Do you know anyone who drives a gold Mercedes with a license plate 'DA BOMB'?" she asked, standing as well.

"No!" Sienna said shrilly. She turned to leave.

"Is the owner the guy you both liked?" Malon asked. Sienna didn't answer. She stormed out angrily, and in her wake she left a chill. The girl at the counter raised an eyebrow at Zelda and Malon, and then went back to reading her magazine.

"Wait, wait!!" Zelda said, grabbing a napkin and chasing out the door behind her. "Sienna!"

"What do you want, Blondie?"

"Here. I can tell you're done talking, I won't push you any more."

"Hah!"

"Here's my number in case we want to talk again," Zelda said, fishing a pen out of her purse and scrawling the number down. "Here."

Sneering, Sienna took the napkin and shoved it in her pocket.

"I can see I've made a mistake and this is going nowhere. I won't be talking to you again, Princess."

"So be it," Zelda said, a chill to her words. "Bye." Sienna didn't answer, but turned and began walking down the sidewalk. Zelda walked back into the coffee shop, down that Sienna had seemed so against working together. But at least she had taken the number instead of throwing it on the ground.

"Come on, there's nothing more to do here," Zelda told Malon as she came inside the coffee shop. "Let's go home."

Zelda and Malon were silent as they walked to the car. Once they were inside and driving, Zelda spoke.

"At the party, Ganondorf mentioned Ilia."

Malon didn't answer. She figured there was a story to accompany this statement, so she waited patiently.

"He said something about killing her," Zelda said, biting her lip. She was afraid.

"Z, he was wasted," Malon assured her.

"Exactly," Zelda said. "What if he got so drunk he forgot it was supposed to be a secret and he let it slip?"

"He was probably just being a butthead. Can you honestly see Ganondorf Dragmire killing Ilia Berardi? He hasn't said anything since that night. He was probably just being a drunken dog."

"He mentioned her yesterday in the parking lot. I couldn't really tell what they were talking about before I got there, but he said he had sex with her on homecoming. And that when she was found, her insides were on the ground."

"This is sick and morbid, but that's kinda cool that that rhymed."

"Malon!"

"What? You're being all serious and melodramatic, and-"

"RED HAIR!"

"What?" Malon said, confused. She fingered her crimson hair defensively.

"I just saw it again!" Zelda said, agitated. "Someone with red hair. The first time they ducked into a bush and I couldn't see anything. That time, they were in traffic. I looked over and saw someone running towards the parking lot in front of the deli."

"Lots of people have red hair."

"Yeah, I know, I've just got a feeling..." the blonde bit her lip.

"Oh boy. Another feeling," Malon said flatly. All the same, a twinge of fear pricked her gut. "But honestly. About Ganondorf. Do you seriously think he's the killer?"

"He could be," Zelda said, her eyes narrowing.

"Oh, please," Malon said. "You just don't like him because he teases you all the time."

"He teases you, too!"

"No more than Sheik or Mikau do!"

"No, but you hate Ganondorf like I do!"

"No, I dislike him because he's a pretty boy and he makes fun of kids who can't help the way they are, or are too poor to afford good shoes," the red head said. "That's evil, in my opinion. But he hasn't done anything horrid to me except being a typical high school boy. I dislike him. You have a passionate hatred for him."

Zelda was silent.

"You're not gonna answer, are you?"

She didn't.

Malon sighed. And then she saw it- a car weave out into another lane. The driver's face was invisible, but the shock of red hair stuck out.

_Okay, Malon, you're being paranoid,_ she thought to herself.

The pair rode in silence to Zelda's house, where Zelda gathered her schoolbags and exited the car.

"See you tomorrow morning," Malon said brightly.

"See ya!" Zelda said. The two of them usually forgave each other quickly, which is how they'd managed to stay friends for this long. As Malon drove away, Zelda stood in the yard. It was nice out today. It was humid, which made Zelda's hair frizz, but the temperature was nice. It had stopped drizzling momentarily, so Zelda decided to enjoy it. She unlocked the front door (Liam was still at work) and dropped her bags off in her room. She picked her laptop up off the ground and walked outside to the front porch. She sat down and began killing time.

Then she saw a flash of red hair.

Startled, she jumped up. Her heart was racing. Could it be the same person she'd been seeing? Probably not, but still. Paranoid, she went inside and locked the front door behind her. After a moment of thought, she shoved a heavy chair against the door for good measure. She set her computer down on the bed and was about to resume where she'd left off, and then Ilia's face from the dream when she had crashed popped back into her mind. The mascara tracks, the plead for help...

Zelda's heart was racing. Telling herself she was just being silly, she set her laptop down and power-walked into the kitchen. She pulled a butcher knife out of the knife drawer and hid behind the island.

She heard tires. Her knuckles were white against the knife.

She heard footsteps. Her breathing was uneven. They walked to the porch, and Zelda heard heavy thumping and a struggle. Then, the struggle stopped.

_Thump, thump, thump..._ footsteps leading around the house. They paused by the kitchen window, and Zelda mashed herself against the island, praying she wouldn't be seen.

The footsteps continued, around the back of the house. Ilia's face was crying and screaming in Zelda's subconscious, and Zelda felt sick, tired, and like she was about to cry.

Five.

She heard the back door slide open quietly, and she cursed herself for not locking it while she had the chance.

Four.

Zelda nearly cried.

Three.

She knew the red-haired killer was about to gut her like he did Ilia... What would she be? Number seven?

Two.

Zelda heard feet slowly walk into the kitchen, and she heard heavy breathing.

One.

She sprang up with the knife in hand, ready to stab her attacker.

A scream met her ears, and her own shortly followed. A male hand gripped her wrist, and he quickly pinned her against the counter. Zelda started screaming erratically, terrified...

"Zelda! Zelda!"

"No! No!"

"ZELDA!" roared the male. Zelda stopped screaming and instead was breathing heavily.

"Doomie," she whispered.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" he screamed. "This is not why I bought this house and worked so hard to get custody of you, to get stabbed at in my own Goddess-damned kitchen!"

"I'm sorry!" Zelda said, still panting like she'd just run a mile. She hugged Liam, smelled his Liam-ness, soaked in the fact that his hair was black, most definitely not red. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... It's been a hard day."

"What happened?" Liam asked dryly, still annoyed. He awkwardly patted her back.

"Sheik's being a jerk," Zelda said. "I got coffee with Malon. We saw a red-headed guy and we think he was following us. I just saw him outside, I think. Doomie, why did you use the back door instead of the front?"

"I couldn't get through," he said. "Damn thing must have been jammed."

Zelda blushed. "That was my doing... I panicked and shoved a chair up against the door."

"Ah," Liam said. "Sorry I yelled."

"Sorry I tried to kill you."

"Do you still feel scared?"

"Yes," Zelda said.

"Alright. Let's just watch a movie or something, alright?"

"Sure," Zelda said. They walked to his room, and decided on a comedy they'd watched with their parents many times. Zelda ducked in her room to grab her laptop while Liam made some popcorn. She sprawled out on the couch. She liked to lay down, and Liam liked to sit. They'd always got along during the few movie nights they'd shared. Zelda opened up her laptop and went to MyFace. She opened up the chat, and saw Sheik Baldwin near the bottom. She stared at his name for a moment, and her eyes narrowed. Then, she clicked on it and typed a quick, three-letter word.

_Hey._

There was a moment before he responded with a mirrored_ Hey._

There was an awkward Internet-silence where neither said anything.

_What is your problem today?_ Zelda asked, irritated. There was a long pause, and then Sheik's answer came.

_Nothing._

_Oh, Dodongo shit, _Zelda told him. _Since when have I had the flu? Since when have you not picked me until the very end in PE? Why are you acting like an ass?_

This time, the pause took several minutes. As Liam came out with a big bowl of popcorn, Zelda shot a quick, _Well?_, at him. Then, he answered. Zelda's stomach dropped down to her feet and it felt like a frigid rock was in its place. Overcompensating for her tiny, cold stomach, Zelda's throat felt like it swelled up and got a lot hotter.

_Because I'm done._

_With what? Me?_ Zelda asked, beginning to dread she'd started the conversation.

_Yes._ Sheik replied quickly. Zelda stared at it for a moment. This time the awkward pause was her own.

"Zelda, you gonna watch the movie or play on MyFace?" Liam asked.

"Just a second," Zelda asked.

_What do you mean?_ she finally typed.

_I can't talk to you anymore._

_Why not?_ Zelda was glad this conversation was online as opposed to in person. Her throat felt very dry, and she wasn't sure if she could face Sheik right now, his masked, stranger-like eyes.

_Because it hurts to be around you. I'm tired of waiting, Z. I've been very patient with you. I've waited all through high school to ask you out, but nothing ever happened. I know now nothing ever will. So I'm not being a jerk about it. I'm just cutting ties. We're done, Zel. It's been a fun ride._

_Are you breaking up with me? _Zelda asked. Again, she was glad this was online. There's no way she could have said that without stuttering a gazillion times.

_You can't break up with someone who you never really connected with anyway, _was Sheik's simple reply. Zelda was dumbstruck. She didn't like this new Sheik. The Sheik she knew would have a dozen smart-ass remarks to make about everything, and a lot of typos. This Sheik was prim and precise, not letting his emotions get through. Yes, he was breaking up with her. And yes, he was right. Obviously they'd never really connected anyway.

Instead of either A. Coming up with a dignified remark to show him who was boss, or B. Try to plead with him that it wasn't true, they could be friends, Zelda slammed her computer shut like an immature five-year-old and set it on the coffee table. Liam began to question her, but then decided it wouldn't work, and he hit the play button. The movie began, but neither Royale really watched it. Liam thought about Zelda at first, but then forgot and began thinking about work and the murders. Zelda's thoughts were only for Sheik. When her eyes welled up with tears, she rubbed them furiously and told Liam she was tired. She went to bed, curled up in a ball, and refused to cry. Eventually she fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

A/N: Oh noes!!! My tooths are blue!! :D I'm slightly hyper :D Review please!!


	12. Chapter 12: The Storm

**Disclaimer: I own nothing LoZ related.**

A/N: So, ah, it's been a notoriously long time :/ Sorry!! I'll be honest, a lot of it is due to laziness (okay, most...) but I HAVE been writing. Just not posting. Yeah, it's kinda weird. I also hurt my knee again... I'm going to the orthopedist on Monday to see what the problem is, cross your fingers they figure it out!! Also... PROM is next week! Yayness!! :D

* * *

NUMBER NINE

Chapter Twelve: The Storm

_"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness."_

_~ Friedrich Nietzsche_

"Thanks for the ride, Malon," Zelda said softly.

"You're welcome," Malon said, driving up to Zelda's house. It was Friday, the day after their meeting with Sienna. Sheik and Zelda had not talked all day, and Sienna had skipped school for a great portion of the day. It had been an awful day for Zelda. It had stopped drizzling, but the skies were still dark and it still looked like it could storm at any minute. Zelda's heart throbbed because she missed Sheik so badly, and she missed Link too. She'd just received some saddening news from him, which was partially why she was so down.

Malon slowed down as they neared Zelda's house. Zelda glared at the Jeep sitting in the Baldwins' yard.

"Stop," Zelda said, her voice hard. "I want to talk to him."

"You sure?" a concerned Malon asked, slowing down to a stop in front of Sheik's house. Zelda's hand hovered over the door handle before retracting.

"No," she sighed. Malon watched her, and then pulled into Zelda's driveway.

"It might help if you two did talk, you know," she said softly.

"It wouldn't," Zelda said, sounding very resigned as she opened the door and grabbed her bags. She smiled weakly up at Malon. "You now have the undivided title of 'Best Friend'."

Besides a grunt, Malon ignored the statement. "Do you want to come over and stay the night?"

"Nah. I think Doomie wanted to do something," Zelda lied. She really just felt like crawling into bed and vegetating.

"Okay," Malon said, seeing through the lie but choosing to let the blonde have her way. "See you later, I guess."

"See you. Thanks for the ride," Zelda said. Malon nodded, and Zelda shut the door. Malon watched her to make sure that Zelda got in the house okay, and then drove off.

Zelda walked to her room and threw her bags on the floor. Liam had a big job to do tonight, and he wouldn't be home until much later. Zelda curled up in her bed. Out the window, she glanced at Sheik's window. Their bedrooms were across from each other. Usually, Sheik had his curtains shut, but for whatever reason today he didn't. Zelda always kept hers open. She liked to see outside.

Her heart throbbed as she saw Sheik sitting on his bed, fingering his guitar. Zelda watched him, and it felt like someone had punched her in the gut. She thrust her curtains closed and balled up tighter under the covers. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to forget about Sheik.

And then red-hot fury consumed her. How _dare _he create such an awkward conversation they couldn't speak! How dare he lie to his mother just so he wouldn't have to see her anymore! How _dare _he end a lifelong friendship because it couldn't be anything more!

Livid, Zelda threw the covers aside and got out of bed. It was _stupid _of her to lie around and feel sorry for herself. She slipped her tennis shoes on and stormed out the front door. She felt like she flew across the space between their houses, but it was really just a quick walk. She stepped up to the Baldwins' front door and knocked. There were a few seconds of nothingness, and then Mido answered the door. He was a few inches taller than Zelda, with a mop of red hair that dangled in front of his eyes. His chest was still barrel-shaped, although it was losing some of its flab and becoming more defined.

"Hey, Zelda!" he said with more enthusiasm then he'd had for awhile. "You here to kick Sheik's ass?"

"Yes!" Zelda said.

"Right this way," Mido said, stepping aside with a smile on his face. "He's in his room."

"I know," Zelda said, forgetting that sounded kind of stalkerish. If she weren't so mad, she might have blushed and tried to come up with a feeble excuse, but she was beyond excuses.

"Mido! Language!" Mrs. Baldwin said, coming from the kitchen. She was drying a dish. "Oh! Hello!"

"She's here to kick Sheik's ass," Mido explained. Mrs. Baldwin looked between the two of them, and Zelda wondered for a moment if Mrs. Baldwin would make her leave.

"Very well," she said, sounding tired. "He has it coming..."

Mido actually laughed. Zelda didn't even smile. She stalked to Sheik's room and threw open the door. She walked in and slammed it shut.

His facial expression was priceless, but Zelda didn't even see it. His eyes were round, and he nearly dropped his guitar in shock.

"What the _hell _is your problem?" she shouted. "So you're just gonna skulk around in here and not even tell me that you don't want to see me anymore?!"

"Last night-"

"On the _computer_? How pansy-ass is that?! Was you intention just to forget about everything?! Forget about me?! It's not that easy!"

"I know," he said.

"I mean, _seriously!_" the blonde yelled. Sheik set his guitar down. "And what is up with the guitar? Guitars suck! Did you not get the memo? Everyone plays guitar! Guitars are sooo lame! _You're _lame!"

"Since when have guitars been lame?" Sheik asked.

"I mean, they're so stupid-looking! Like, like..." Zelda struggled to keep the anger flowing. She was afraid of what might happen if she stopped. "The strings. The strings are stupid. Why don't you play something cool, like, like... A fiddle?"

"Fiddles have strings."

"Oh, now you're gonna try to make me look stupid?!"

"You're doing a pretty good job on your own..."

"Oh, I haven't even _started!_" Zelda shrieked, stomping over to him. "You're an _ass, _Sheik Baldwin! You know what hell this has been for me?! I show up here to get a ride to school, to find you told your mom I was sick! You couldn't even do me the courtesy of telling me you weren't going to take me anymore?! Since when have you been a liar, Sheik? And the PE thing! You know Ganondorf and I- shouldn't be near each other!" she stopped her sentence halfway through and said something else. "You knew that anyway, but you almost let me get picked by him! Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to be picked after Agahnim? And the kid-no-one-knows-the-gender of? _The kid-no-one-knows-the-gender-of?!_"

"Zel-"

"What is _up _with you?! And I failed a paper because I couldn't finish it because of you! I've also been tired out of my mind because I've got four hours of sleep between last night and the night before! _Put together!_ I failed the quiz today! Because I could just concentrate on you sitting there, not even looking at me! Like I'm a stranger or something!" Zelda said. Her voice broke. "And having only Malon to sit with at lunch because you decided to be all emo and sit by yourself at lunch with Fox, which caused Mikau to go over there, which caused Ruto to go, which caused Saria to go! And I found out Link can't even come this weekend like he was supposed to because of this Goddess damned storm!"

"Link was supposed to come?" he said quietly. He stood up.

"And I've been hurting! I've been _hurting, _Sheik!" Zelda yelled. "Every time I see you, and you won't look at me- or when you do, you look at me like- like you _hate _me or something..."

"I could never hate you," Sheik said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her closer. Zelda froze. He was hugging her. _Hugging _her. She paused for just a minute, and her eyes welled up.

"What are you, frickin' bipolar?!?" she shouted, pushing him away. "_I hate you, I don't, I hate you, I don't,_" she mimicked. "It's like we're kids playing that game where you pick the petals off the flower!"

"You never played that game," he said quietly. "You didn't like that, no matter the outcome, the flower was always picked apart until it died."

Zelda felt a chill run down her back, and then she hardened again. She started to yell again, and then Sheik touched her lips with one finger. That stopped her for a moment. Electricity fired through her veins and goose bumps rose on her arms.

"I haven't been talking to you because it hurts me, too," he said. "To hear you talk about Link like he's a god or something... Even the simple things you do, like flipping your hair around... The smell of your shampoo and your perfume... The way you talk when I've irritated... Your laugh... And _Din, _when you talk about the latest fight you and Link have had..." Sheik let his finger drop down. It traced across her cheek, and down her neck. Zelda's heart fluttered like a hummingbird's wings. "You talk like you actually love him, or something," Sheik said, frustrated. "And you _don't. _He's an _ass. _He's a user. I saw the picture on MyFace of him and that other girl. Holding her all possessively... Like he holds you..."

"I love him," Zelda said, sounding like she was trying to reassure herself. "We're kind of engaged..."

Sheik stared at her blankly.

"The day before he left for college," Zelda said dreamily. "He told me he loved me, but he was too broke to buy a ring. I told him I'd wait for him..."

Sheik continued to stare at her, dumbstruck. Then, he snapped.

"Just like that!" he shouted, raising his voice for the first time. Zelda's eyes widened. He jumped away and kicked his bed frame as hard as he could. Zelda couldn't think of anything to say, she was so blind sided.

"Sh-Sheik," she managed to say, reaching out and touching his shoulder blade.

"Don't _touch _me!" he yelled, jumping further away. "For the love of _Din_!" Sheik stepped around her, and opened his door. He nearly sprinted out, and Zelda stood there for a second, feeling sad again. Then, the anger returned. She followed him out of his bedroom, ignoring the bewildered looks from Mido and Mrs. Baldwin, who clearly had been listening. Sheik flew out the front door, and Zelda followed him.

"Where are you going?" she asked, as he jogged towards the backyard. She followed. She ran cross country too- she could keep up for awhile. He was better than her, but not by much. Sheik headed for the woods behind their houses, and he ran into them. Zelda followed him, occasionally glimpsing his white shirt, and following. "Sheik!" she yelled. "Sheik, where are you?!"

It felt like she chased him for hours, trying to find him, and he tried to elude her. Sometimes she would glimpse his shirt, his hair... She was going to find him.

As they wound deeper and deeper into the woods, anger was replaced by panic. She had no idea where she was. The murders had a common denominator- they all had happened in the woods. The first had been found near where Sheik and Zelda lived. Zelda fought down fear. She hadn't seen Sheik in awhile.

"Sheik!" she yelled, stopping and walking. She was panting and completely out of breath. It was already shadowy back here, and it was nearing nighttime and the sky was dark. As Zelda thought it, she heard a low rumbling of thunder and the first raindrops began to fall. "Sheik!" she cried out again, in vain. "Sheik, I don't know where I am!" she yelled, panic in her voice. She stumbled through the dark woods, trying to find him. She hit a tree root and fell down. She screamed as she hit the dirt. "Sheik," she whispered, feeling totally helpless. She sat up, and clapped her hand over her mouth. The fear settled down when she realized it was Sheik standing about fifteen feet away, his hands in fists and his chest pumping up and down while he panted as well. The two stared at each other for a moment, and then he walked over to her. He roughly pulled her to her feet and then tried to walk away.

"Sheik," she repeated his name for about the fiftieth time and reached out to touch him.

"What did I tell you about touching me?!" he shouted, shrugging her off. Zelda's mouth quivered, and the first tears fell with the raindrops. Zelda screamed and tried to look up at the sky. All she could see were branches.

"Sheik. Look at me," she whispered. Slowly, Sheik turned around. She was crying. He resisted the urge to hug her and stroke her back. It wouldn't do any good now. He'd screwed everything up.

"You hate me," he said confidently.

"I could never hate you," she whispered.

"You don't like me very much."

"Way more than I should."

Sheik stared at her, and then said a single word: "No." He turned.

"Sheik!" she repeated, again. He heard her footsteps, and felt the rain begin to pour down on him. She touched his arm. He spun away from her touch, but this time spun around into her. He put one arm around the middle of her back, and the other on the back of her head. Her hair was light and soft beneath his hand. Zelda felt like all the breath had been taken from her body as he touched her. She was aware of every inch of him and she let herself conform against him. Neither spoke for a moment. Blue eyes looked into brown, and Sheik couldn't tell if the wetness on Zelda's face was from the rain or tears. It was probably a mixture of both.

"What do you mean you like me more than you should?" he whispered. There was no need to speak up. Their faces were only inches away.

"What do you think?" she said, her tone filled with irritation. She was crying. "I know I shouldn't. But I do."

Sheik's heart was soaring and breaking at the same time.

"I want to kiss you right now," he breathed, his chest pounding.

"I want to kiss you, too," Zelda admitted, another tear coming down.

"You don't want this," he said sadly, shaking his head. "You want Link."

A mental image of Link popped into Zelda's mind. Smiling, happy, go-lucky Link... Zelda started to feel guilty, and then the picture she'd seen on MyFace of Link holding another girl and drinking replaced it. She couldn't find words, and merely shook her head. She looked up at him, her mouth slightly open.

"May I kiss you?" Sheik asked. His legs were completely numb. Zelda didn't say anything. Sheik noticed her hair was growing very wet with the rain, and it was beginning to plaster against her face.

"Yes," she said softly. Sheik hesitated.

"You'll be mad later," he said, pulling away. Zelda then put her arms around on her neck and stood on her tiptoes. She put her hand behind his head and entwined her fingers in his curly, reddish-brown hair and closed the distance between them. The vision of Link faded. Sheik didn't need any more pushing- in a slow, precise moment that almost felt like curiosity instead of love or lust or whatever this was, he touched his lips to hers. Above them, thunder resounded and water rained down from the heavens.


End file.
